Jordan Berman
Appearances
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Welcome back to Unbiased, your favorite source of unbiased news and legal analysis. Welcome back to Unbiased Politics. Today is Thursday, February 27th. Let's talk about some news, starting with this healthcare pricing transparency order signed by the president on Monday. This order is called Making America Healthy Again by empowering patients with clear, accurate, and actionable
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But in light of all of this, in August 2019, she filed a charge of discrimination with the Ohio Civil Rights Commission and the Equal Opportunity Commission. And then in November of 2020, she officially sued her employer for employment discrimination. She argued that she was the subject of discrimination based on her sexual orientation. And in support of that claim,
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She noted that her employer hired a gay woman instead of her for the bureau chief role that she had applied for, and she was replaced by a gay man in the program administrator role that she was demoted from. So this case, you know, it's being litigated, and on appeal, the Sixth Circuit rules against her.
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The court acknowledged that her case was an easy one based on the fact that she held her job as program administrator for five years with reasonably good reviews, but then was replaced by a gay man and a gay woman, got the job that she had wanted.
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But the court found that because Ames is straight, she was also required to show background circumstances that would support the suspicion that her employer discriminated against her. She was unable to show these background circumstances and she ended up losing the case. So Ames then goes to the Supreme Court. And here's the question the justices now have to answer.
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In addition to pleading and proving other elements of employment discrimination. Does a majority group plaintiff have to show background circumstances to support the suspicion that the defendant, the employer, discriminates against the majority?
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As for Ames, she argued that requiring a show of background circumstances conflicts with the text of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which simply prohibits discrimination against any individual with respect to the terms of conditions of employment due to that individual's sex or other protected characteristic.
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She argued that by imposing this background circumstances rule, the Court of Appeals is effectively adding words to Title VII that aren't there. Her employer, on the other hand, argued that the appeals court didn't impose a higher standard simply because Ames is straight. Instead, the background circumstances requirement is simply a method of analysis. for the courts to use.
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However, the Supreme Court justices were not buying the employer's argument. This case will go in favor of Ames. I'm 99% sure. You can't be 100% sure, of course, but I'm almost there. And that is because even Justice Gorsuch said during arguments yesterday that the justices were in, quote, radical agreement. And that is not something you hear every day on the bench.
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is calling for a framework to be made that will enforce an executive order from Trump's first administration. The original executive order was signed June 24th, 2019. It was called Improving Price and Quality Transparency in American Healthcare to Put Patients First.
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Not that, you know, a unanimous decision from the court is rare, but it's just rarely ever voiced during the actual argument. So we can expect that when this decision comes out, it'll go in Ames' favor, which will mean that for a majority group person to claim employment discrimination, they are held to the same standard as a minority group person would be.
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Speaking of the Supreme Court, though, it released the cases it'll be hearing in its April session, which starts on April 21st. Just to note some of the more high profile cases, here they are, starting with Kennedy versus Braidwood Management, which the court will hear on the first day of its April session.
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This case centers around an HHS policy that requires health insurance providers to cover the cost of preventative medications and services. Braidwood Management is a company that self-insures its employees, and it's taking issue with this particular requirement because it means that
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that it has to cover preventative treatments for its employees, such as PrEP, a drug that effectively prevents HIV infection. Braidwood believes these drugs encourage and facilitate homosexual behavior, which the owner of the company says goes against his religious beliefs.
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As for the legal basis of the case, Braidwood argues that the preventative services task force within the HHS, which is who created this policy that requires health insurance providers to cover the cost of preventative medications and services, is in violation of the appointments clause of the Constitution because the task force members were not appointed by the president or confirmed by the Senate.
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The court below held that the task force did violate the Constitution, and the Supreme Court will now have to decide whether to uphold or reverse that ruling.
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And a quick note here, this case was originally called Becerra v. Braidwood Management, and that's because the HHS secretary under Biden was Xavier Becerra, but the current HHS secretary, Robert F. Kennedy, has now replaced Becerra, so the new case name is Kennedy v. Braidwood Management.
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Moving on to Mahmoud v. Taylor, the Supreme Court will decide whether or not it burdens parents' religious exercise when public schools instruct elementary school students on gender and sexuality without the consent or knowledge from the parents.
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This case was originally filed in Montgomery County, Maryland, where Superintendent Thomas Taylor and the school board require elementary school teachers to read certain books to their students, some of which discuss gender and sexuality. The plaintiffs include parents of elementary school-aged kids in the county and an association called Kids First.
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A major issue in this particular case is that the Board of Education did not allow parents to opt their kids out of this instruction. So the plaintiffs argued that the failure to do so was a violation of their rights to guide the religious upbringing of their children. However, the court below held that parents give up these rights when they send their kids to public schools.
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And that original executive order required hospitals to maintain a consumer-friendly display of pricing information for up to 300 shoppable services. It required hospitals to maintain a machine-readable file with negotiated rates for every single service a hospital provides.
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So the Supreme Court will have to decide whether to uphold or reverse that ruling, and the court will hear arguments in that case on April 22nd. And the third and final case we'll talk about that'll be heard in the court's April session is AJT versus OCO area schools.
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This centers around disability-based discrimination in schools and the standard that plaintiffs must meet when they bring a disability discrimination claim in the courts.
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So under the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, people can be awarded for compensation when they prove that a defendant was deliberately indifferent to the rights that protect them from disability discrimination in schools.
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The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act guarantees the right to a free public education as well as individualized education programs called IEPs. We talked about this a couple of weeks ago. What we didn't talk about, though, is that the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals recently created a more stringent standard for getting compensation under these laws.
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Plaintiffs now have to prove that school officials acted with bad faith or gross misjudgment in order to prevail. And the plaintiffs are challenging that heightened standard, which means the Supreme Court will now decide if this bad faith or gross misjudgment standard should be the bar for education-related disability discrimination relief going forward.
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Staying on the topic of legal battles, on Monday, a federal judge blocked the transfer of 12 transgender female prisoners to male federal prisons.
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As we've discussed, the president recently signed an order called Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government, which clarified that in government settings, there are only two sexes, male and female, and that those sexes are not interchangeable.
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Following the issuance of that order, transgender prisoners in federal prisons were to be moved to facilities which are meant for members of their biological sex.
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Three transgender female prisoners who were set to be moved to male federal prisons filed a lawsuit alleging, one, their medical needs would not be met at a prison that does not recognize their gender identity, and two, they would not be safe in a men's facility.
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On February 4th, a judge issued a temporary restraining order against the federal government, which meant the government could not move the transgender women to the men's facility. And in reasoning this way, the judge cited to the Eighth Amendment, which protects against cruel and unusual punishment.
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The most recent development, though, came earlier this week when that temporary block was extended to an additional 12 inmates. Notably, this is the second lawsuit related to this issue since the president's executive order. In January, an inmate was set to be transferred to a male prison after the Bureau of Prison's records changed their sex from female to male.
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They filed a lawsuit with similar reasoning, and that judge also granted a temporary restraining order against the government. That inmate has since been placed on, or I should say has since been placed in, a special holding unit pending transfer. Okay, let's take our second and final break here. I know the ad times are a little bit messed up this episode. The timing was just a little bit off.
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It required health plans to post their negotiated rates with providers, post their out-of-network payments to providers, and the actual prices paid for prescription drugs, and it required health plans to maintain a consumer-facing internet tool, making price information accessible.
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We're going to take our second and final break here. When we come back, we'll talk about a foreign aid legal saga, some quick hitters, and rumor has it. Okay, welcome back. Let's now talk about this foreign aid legal saga. Last night, the Supreme Court paused a lower court order requiring the Trump administration to release $2 billion in frozen foreign aid.
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The effect of the Supreme Court's ruling is that the administration does not have to release the funds that it was previously ordered to by a lower court. But let's back up a bit and talk about how we got here. So on Trump's first day in office, he issued an executive order which stopped the disbursement of foreign aid to international organizations for 90 days. This included U.S.
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aid-funded programs and impacted various health and educational programs and organizations worldwide. So various nonprofit organizations and contractors that are involved in the U.S. foreign assistance programs sued the administration, arguing that the administration's decision to suspend foreign aid violates both federal law and the Constitution.
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Consequently, the plaintiffs asked the court for a court order to enforce the release of the suspended foreign aid payments and ensure that the contracted programs would continue receiving the money they were promised. So roughly two weeks ago, a judge granted that request. However, despite that order, the plaintiffs say that they are unaware of any payments having gone through to them.
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And without the payments and reimbursement for work that had already been completed, they would be forced to furlough workers and end critical programs overseas. So a week after the judge issued that original order, he granted another motion from the plaintiffs, this time to enforce the order. In doing so, he criticized the administration for keeping the funds suspended.
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He ordered the administration to end the suspension and honor the terms of existing contracts and grants and gave the administration roughly 36 hours until 1159 p.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday to pay the roughly $2 billion that was owed to contractors for work that had been completed prior to February 13th.
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The day before the Wednesday deadline, the administration appeals the order, arguing that the Wednesday deadline was impractical because the required payments would take weeks to process due to new procedures aimed at ensuring legitimacy and compliance with policy goals. Wednesday night rolls around, and the appeals court had not yet acted on the appeal.
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So with the deadline approaching in a matter of hours, the administration seeks emergency intervention from the Supreme Court. Then, between the time that the administration went to the Supreme Court on Wednesday, but before the Supreme Court issued their ruling Wednesday night, the appeals court made its decision.
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So naturally, you might be wondering, okay, so if the president did something similar in the past, what's the need for the new order? Well, a non-profit that fights for system-wide healthcare price transparency called Patient Rights Advocate
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It rejected the administration's appeal, finding that the lower court's order was not appealable. However, since the administration had already gone to the Supreme Court, it just awaited the Supreme Court's response.
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And late last night, Chief Justice Roberts issued an order that put the lower court's order on hold, meaning the administration does not have to pay the roughly $2 billion in foreign aid, at least not yet, because the chief justice also ordered the plaintiffs, the ones that originally, you know, sued the administration, to submit their response to the administration's appeal by noon tomorrow.
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and implied that the court would make a more permanent decision once it reviews the briefs from both parties. Now, the reason that the Chief Justice issued this order alone is because the way the court works is like this. Each justice has jurisdiction over a certain appellate circuit. For instance, when there's an appeal from the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, it goes to Justice Kavanaugh.
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When there's an appeal from the Second Circuit, it goes to Justice Sotomayor. When there's an appeal from the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, it goes to the Chief Justice. When a justice receives an appeal, they can either act alone or they can refer it to the full court. Obviously, in this situation, because there was very limited time to act, the chief justice acted alone.
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But that's the way the court works. Also worth noting, court orders, which is what we saw last night, Court orders are different than court opinions when it comes to the Supreme Court. So with orders, the court does not have to give us a rationale or tell us why it ruled the way it did or tell us which way certain justices ruled on any given issue.
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So in this case, because it was an order, not an opinion, we didn't get much information as to why the chief justice ruled the way he did. We just know that he acted alone in putting the lower court's order on hold. So more will definitely develop in this case, and I will update you accordingly.
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Let's now move on to some quick hitters, starting with this announcement out of the White House regarding Doge. We finally know who the Doge acting administrator is. Her name is Amy Gleeson. She previously worked with the United States Digital Service from 2018 to 2021. And a couple of things worth mentioning here.
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released a report in November of 2024 after reviewing 2,000 hospitals and found that only 21% of those 2,000 were in full compliance with the requirements to publicly post a list of prices for common treatments and services.
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One, we talked last week about that affidavit filed by the administration, which said Musk was not the administrator of Doge. And everyone was kind of like, okay, well, then who is it? Because The president himself has said Musk is running Doge. We also talked about the fact that in creating Doge, the president essentially renamed what was once the U.S. Digital Service to the U.S. Doge Service.
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So a senior advisor of the U.S. Digital Service now serving as the acting administrator of the U.S. Doge Service kind of makes sense. To give you a little bit of background on Gleason, she is a 53-year-old. She has a background in healthcare tech and public service. She started out as a nurse early in her career.
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She eventually co-founded a telemedicine startup focused on chronic disease management. Keep in mind, the U.S. Digital Service started as an agency that was meant to make government systems more efficient for purposes of Obamacare. So That's where the healthcare side of Gleason's experience ties into the U.S. Digital Service and now the U.S. Doge Service.
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But speaking of Doge, the second quick hitter is that on Tuesday, 21 Doge employees resigned in protest against the agency's recent directives. But these are people that previously worked for the U.S. Digital Service. They were not new hires specifically for Doge. They included people like engineers, data scientists, and product managers.
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And in their resignation letter, they expressed concerns over compromising governmental systems and dismantling critical public services. And some news out of Congress. The House passed its budget resolution earlier this week, very much along party lines in a 217 to 215 vote.
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You may remember last week I reported that the House committee had passed the GOP budget resolution, and I said that it would now have to pass the full House. That's what happened on Tuesday. But I've also since talked about the fact that the Senate also passed their own budget resolution, which looks a lot different than the resolution from the House. So
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what will happen now that both chambers have officially passed their own versions of a resolution, committees from both chambers will get together, try to sort out their differences with the goal of coming up with one resolution that can be adopted by both chambers.
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And if and when that one resolution is adopted by both chambers, that's what would serve as the binding roadmap for Congress when it comes time to appropriate funds to each department of the government for the upcoming fiscal year.
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Furthermore, during the Biden administration, 15 hospitals were fined for noncompliance, and as of October, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services had issued about 1,600 warning notices to hospitals not in compliance with transparency requirements.
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In other news, the president reiterated today that the 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada will go into effect on March 4th, and possibly even an additional 10% tariff on China. Taking to Truth Social this morning, the president wrote, quote, drugs are still pouring into our country from Mexico and Canada at very high and unacceptable levels.
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A large percentage of these drugs, much of them in the form of fentanyl, are made in and supplied by China. We cannot allow the scourge to continue and
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to harm the usa and therefore until it stops or is seriously limited the proposed tariff scheduled to go into effect on march 4th will indeed go into effect as scheduled china will like likewise be charged an additional 10 tariff on that date the april 2nd reciprocal tariff date will remain in full force and effect End quote.
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And the FDA canceled a March meeting about flu vaccine strains without explanation or any indication that it would be rescheduled. The cancellation follows a postponement of a meeting of CDC vaccine advisors, which was scheduled to take place this week.
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A member of the Vaccine and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee said the March flu vaccine meeting is held every March to pick flu strains for the upcoming flu season since it's a six-month production cycle for a vaccine released in September.
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The FDA, in confirming the meeting's cancellation, said it would make public its recommendations to manufacturers in time for updated vaccines to be available for the 2025-2026 flu season. And the Supreme Court ruled that death row inmate Richard Glossop will get a new trial after finding prosecutors failed to correct false testimony in Glossop's original trial.
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I've talked about Glossop's case in the past, but he's been on death row since 1998. Back in 1997, he was the manager at a hotel in Oklahoma City when the hotel's handyman, Justin Sneed, murdered the hotel owner. Sneed admitted to the murder, but told police that Glossop paid him to do it, and Sneed offered to testify against Glossop at Glossop's trial in exchange for a plea deal.
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He did just that. On the stand, Sneed falsely testified that he had never been prescribed lithium and he had never seen a psychiatrist. Years later, new evidence uncovered documents that showed prosecutors knew that Sneed had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, treated by a but failed to correct Sneed's false testimony at trial.
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and while we're rattling off these numbers the new executive order cited in economic analysis from 2023 which estimated the impact of these regulations if fully implemented could result in as much as 80 billion dollars in health care savings for consumers employers, and insurers by 2025.
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So the Supreme Court ultimately found that correcting this false testimony would have disrupted the prosecution's case and their portrayal of Sneed and potentially would have changed the jury's verdict, and therefore Glossop is entitled to a new trial.
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And yesterday, the president announced that the United States is withdrawing from an agreement that allowed Chevron to drill and refine oil in Venezuela. The deal with Venezuela was one that was entered into by former President Biden as an exception to the sanctions put on Venezuela by the United States.
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Per the terms of the deal, the United States would allow Chevron to drill in Venezuela, contributing to Venezuela's economy, and Venezuela, in exchange, would facilitate a fair election.
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As we've talked about, that election definitely did not end up being a fair one, and Trump wrote on Truth Social today, "...we are hereby reversing the concessions that crooked Joe Biden gave to Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela on the oil transaction agreement and also having to do with electoral conditions within Venezuela, which have not been met by the Maduro regime."
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Additionally, the regime has not been transporting the violent criminals that they sent into our country back to Venezuela at the rapid pace they agreed to, and therefore ordering that the ineffective and unmet Biden concession agreement be terminated as of the March 1st option to renew."
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And as our last quick hitter, a new Department of Defense memo written yesterday says, among other things, that service members who have a current diagnosis or history of or exhibit symptoms consistent with gender dysphoria will be processed for separation from military service.
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The secretaries of the military departments within 30 days must establish procedures and implement steps to identify service members who fall into this category. And then within 30 days of identification, those service members shall begin separation actions.
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unless an individual is granted a waiver so waivers would be issued on a case-by-case basis if the service member one demonstrates 36 consecutive months of stability in the service member's sex without clinically significant distress or impairment two demonstrates that he or she has never attempted to transition to any sex other than their sex and three is willing and able to adhere to all applicable standards
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So it seems from the language in the memo that a service member can stay in the military even if they identify with another sex so long as they have never attempted to transition and haven't had any periods of instability in how they view their sex in the last three years.
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Okay, now it's time for Rumor Has It, my weekly segment where I address rumors submitted by all of you, either confirm them, dispel them, or add context if I can't dispel or confirm. Rumor has it that the state of Wisconsin is replacing the word mother with inseminated person in state laws. This is true. Let's also add some context.
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The governor submitted a budget bill to the state legislature for approval earlier this month, and in that bill, the governor changed mother to inseminated person in one particular statute. It is a statute that deals with IVF. Currently, the law reads, quote, the husband of the mother at the time of conception of the child shall be the natural father of a conceived child.
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But the amended law, if it's passed by the legislature, will read, quote, the spouse of the inseminated person at the time of conception of the child shall be the natural parent of the child conceived. End quote.
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The order also cited another report from 2024, which suggested healthcare price transparency could help employers reduce healthcare costs by 27% across 500 common healthcare services. So that explains a little bit about the purpose of this order. But finally, let's ask the question, will this order be challenged?
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This change is one of many changes in the budget bill that substitutes gendered terms with gender neutral language, but the only instance of changing mother to inseminated person is in that IVF statute. The governor responded to the criticism he has received saying, quote, I didn't know Republicans were against IVF, but apparently they are because that is what this is about.
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Moms are moms, dads are dads, and what we want is legal certainty that moms are able to get the care they need. That's it. End of story. End quote.
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rumor has it that president trump was a russian spy let's add some context this claim originates from two former russian intelligence officers the first made his claim in 2021 the other made his claim more recently in the last week or so so in 2021 in a book titled american compromise how the kgb cultivated donald trump and related tales of sex greed power and treachery a former kgb major named yuri schwetz alleged that russia had compromised trump
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More recently, a former Soviet intelligence officer named Alnur Musayev made a Facebook post on February 20th claiming that in 1987, the KGB had converted, quote, 40-year-old businessman from the United States Donald Trump named Krasnov while Trump had visited the Soviet Union. So this post quickly gained traction.
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An ex-user ended up making a thread of, quote, various pieces of information that solidified the truth of Trump's KGB involvement. That post has since been viewed over 10 million times. So here's what we know. Intelligence reports indicate that in the mid-1980s, KGB operatives were instructed to target influential Western figures like prominent businessmen.
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healthcare pricing information. Here's the thing. This order is not necessarily new because it actually builds off of a previous executive order from the president's first administration. So let's talk about it. As always, the order has a policy and then a directive. So first, it is the policy of the United States to put patients first and ensure they have the information they need to
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Musayev claims that Trump visited Russia in 1987 to learn more about a real estate project that was supposed to be backed by Soviet officials, and during that trip, Trump met with Soviet officials about the real estate project and may have been converted to an asset during these meetings. Moussiev further claims that Trump's KGB file is still active and managed by a close ally of Putin.
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And he attempts to substantiate these claims by saying that in 1987, he was working for the him being Moussiev was working for the KGB's sixth directorate. And while they're recruiting businessmen from capitalist countries was his department's top priority.
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Now, Snopes has reported that Musayev's timeline doesn't match his story because it says that while Musayev says he worked for the KGB's sixth directorate in 1987, multiple Russian language directories show that Musayev officially left the KGB in 1986 and moved to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which is where he worked during Trump's 1987 visit.
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Adding to that, Snopes reports that espionage is not believed to have been the primary objective of the sixth directorate. Instead, according to the encyclopedia of the CIA, this division focused on enforcing financial and trade laws as well as guarding against economic espionage.
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On the possible truth side of things, Trump did reportedly visit Moscow in 1987 to look at possible locations for luxury hotels, and Trump's relatively pro-Russian positions compared to past presidents have led some to believe that he is, you know, or was a Russian asset in one way or another.
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And given the fact that multiple former Russian intelligence officers have now made similar accusations, and it's not just one person, Some are tending to believe them. Unfortunately, with this rumor, I cannot definitively confirm its truth or falsity, but that is what we know. So that is what I have for you today. Thank you so much for being here.
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If you've been around long enough, you know that almost everything that the government does, regardless of who is in office, gets challenged at some point. So here is what we know about that. When President Trump signed the first order in 2019, hospital groups opposed it. and unsuccessfully challenged it in court.
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Have a fantastic weekend and I will talk to you on Monday.
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Starte dein Testen heute für 1 Euro pro Monat auf shopify.de slash radio.
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They argue that the price transparency requirements forced them to disclose private negotiations with insurers, which undermined competition and violated their First Amendment free speech rights. However, those arguments, like I said, were rejected by the court.
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Now, it's possible that a new challenge is brought based on this new order, but the precedent is there to lead us to believe that if another lawsuit was filed, the administration would likely prevail.
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Okay, moving on to an announcement made by the press secretary that the White House press team will now determine who is a part of the press pool allowed into the Oval Office and other smaller meetings. Previously, this was something that was decided by the White House Correspondents Association, and I'll get into what that organization or association is shortly.
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But first, let's recap the actual announcement and what got us here. Caroline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said at a press briefing Tuesday that the administration is going to quote, "...give the power back to the people who read your papers, who watch your television shows, and who listen to your radio stations.
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Moving forward, the White House press pool will be determined by the White House press team." Levitt went on to explain that outlets that have participated in the press pool for decades will still be able to join press events, but the administration will, quote, also be offering the privilege to well-deserving outlets who have never been allowed to share in this awesome responsibility.
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Now, we have to acknowledge that this announcement comes amid a lawsuit filed by the Associated Press, which we talked about on Monday, but to quickly recap, the AP was banned from the Oval Office after it said it would continue to refer to the Gulf of America as the Gulf of Mexico. The AP subsequently sued the administration, alleging a violation of their First and Fifth Amendment rights.
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But a court just ruled earlier this week that the AP could be withheld from the Oval Office, at least for now. So there is very limited access to certain spaces where the press gets up close with the president. We're talking about Air Force One, the Oval Office. meetings and events that can't accommodate the full press corps.
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So to be clear, we are not talking about the full press corps here, which is a much larger group of journalists, correspondents and members of the media that are assigned to cover government activities in White House events and news briefings.
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We are talking about the smaller group of media personnel that has traditionally been allowed into these more intimate settings, usually about 13 members of the media. That smaller pool of journalists is what the White House press team will now control instead of the White House Correspondents Association. Before this, the WHCA, White House Correspondents Association,
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has overseen who makes up the 13-member group of journalists that are allowed into these smaller, more intimate settings. The WHCA is an independent group made up of representatives from many different outlets. In fact, the association's founding makes for an interesting story. Back in 1914,
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There was a rumor that a congressional committee was going to select which journalists could attend the press conferences of President Wilson. So a group of journalists got together and formed this association to avoid the congressional committee taking the reins, and the association has been in the picture ever since.
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Historically, the association has handled the credentialing process, access to the president, which includes managing the rotating cast of reporters that attends White House events, as well as the physical conditions in the White House press briefing rooms. Now, though, with this announcement from the administration, the association will no longer have control over who has access to the president.
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to make well-informed healthcare decisions. The order goes on to explain that the federal government will promote universal access to clear and accurate healthcare prices and strive to improve transparency requirements.
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This will instead be handled by the White House press team directly.
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Since this announcement, the White House Correspondents Association president released a statement and said the board will not assist any attempt by the administration or any other agency in taking over independent press coverage of the White House, saying further that each news organization will have to decide whether or not to take part in the new government-appointed pools.
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The association's president also called the move by the White House a, quote, "...tear at the independence of a free press in the United States." Moving on, on Wednesday, the president said he plans to introduce a new visa called the Gold Card, saying it'll be available for purchase for about $5 million in as soon as two weeks.
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As the president explains it, a Gold Card will be a visa eligible to foreigners to purchase for about $5 million. It would hold the same privileges as a Green Card, and it would be a potential path to U.S. citizenship. Howard Lutnick, the new Secretary of Commerce, noted that applicants would first go through a vetting process.
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Green cards, officially known as permanent residency cards, allow non-U.S. citizens to live and work permanently in the United States. Green card holders can apply for U.S. citizenship after three years if married to a U.S. citizen or five years if not. Now, there are different types of green cards. There are employment-based green cards and there are family-based green cards.
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Within the category of employment-based green cards, you have EB1, EB2, EB3, EB4, and EB5 cards. Each card is for a different type of employment. So EB1 cards are for priority workers. EB2 cards are for professionals with advanced degrees or exceptional ability. EB3 cards are for skilled workers and professionals. EB4 cards are for special immigrants. And EB5 cards are for investors.
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According to Lutnick, the gold card would replace the EB5 program. The EB-5 program was created in 1992. It offers green cards to eligible investors who invest about a million dollars in a U.S. company that employs at least 10 Americans. However, there are three key differences between the EB-5 and the gold card that we can see so far.
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Now, for the directive to carry out that policy, the order tasks the Secretary of the Treasury, Secretary of Labor, and Secretary of Health and Human Services with implementing and enforcing healthcare price transparency regulations within 90 days. Specifically, it lays out the following actions. One,
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the first is the price difference investors can get green cards through the eb-5 program after investing just 1 million whereas the gold card would cost 5 million the second notable difference is the nature of the transaction with the eb-5 visa the 1 million dollars is invested into a u.s company but that investor still owns that capital and has the potential to earn it back however the 5 million for a gold card looks like it'll just be paid to the federal government in exchange for the card
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And then finally, it seems like the speed of the process to obtain a gold card would be a bit faster than obtaining a green card through the EB-5 process when and if that gold card is officially implemented. So why the gold card?
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President Trump said in part, quote, "...they'll be wealthy," and referring to who would be getting these cards, "...they'll be wealthy, they'll be successful, and they'll be spending a lot of money and paying a lot of taxes and employing a lot of people. And we think it's going to be extremely successful."
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Trump noted that he thinks they could sell about a million cards, and at the price of $5 million each, that would be about $5 trillion, which Lutnick said will go towards paying off the national debt. And now for the big question. Can the president create a gold card? That we don't know. We do know that Congress determines qualifications for citizenship in the United States.
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But according to the president, congressional authority wouldn't be necessary for the gold card because the gold card is different than citizenship. He acknowledges that the card serves as a quote-unquote very strong path to citizenship, but still says congressional authority wouldn't be necessary. The executive branch does have significant leeway when it comes to adjusting existing visa programs.
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But so far, it's unclear whether the president has the requisite power to create a seemingly new visa program. However, it's also possible that the administration structures the gold card as a replacement and expansion of EB-5, which wouldn't technically be a new visa program, right? So that could potentially get around that legal obstacle.
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It is a legal gray area, though, no matter which way you look at it, though. So we will probably see legal challenges. So I will keep you updated.
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on tuesday the senate passed a resolution to change a biden administration rule affecting offshore drilling the vote was 54 to 44 with three democrats joining republicans and the resolution will now head to the house so in september the biden administration passed this rule that said oil and gas companies that produce on the outer continental shelf must produce an archaeological study before they drill or lay pipelines
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The purpose of that rule was to protect shipwrecks as well as underwater cultural sites from damage due to drilling. A prior rule required archaeological studies only when there was reason to believe that an archaeological resource may be present, but that rule didn't always work. In fact, in 2001,
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A 19th century wooden shipwreck was discovered in the Mississippi Canyon only after ExxonMobil laid a pipeline through it. Exxon did not conduct an archaeological study beforehand because they didn't have the requisite reason to believe that an archaeological resource might be present at the site.
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require the disclosure of the actual prices of items and services, not estimates to issue updated guidance or proposed regulatory action, ensuring pricing information is standardized and easily comparable across hospitals and health plans.
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So, the Biden administration issued this new rule that said regardless of whether there's reason to believe archaeological resources are present, oil and gas companies have to complete archaeological studies before drilling in the outer continental shelf. Those that oppose the rule say it's too taxing on smaller companies, it's a waste of money and resources.
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Democrats who voted across the aisle echo similar concerns. One Democratic lawmaker said it feels like there's more paperwork without significant benefit. Democrats don't like red tape any more than Republicans. It doesn't improve drilling or wind or solar or anything out there. It just creates work.
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On the other side of things, though, environmental agencies disagree that the time and money spent on survey processes is wasteful and unnecessary. The American Cultural Resource Association said the rule requires only a very small amount of time and money that helps prevent the permanent destruction of our history.
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So the passage of the resolution marked the first Senate action this year under the Congressional Review Act, which allows lawmakers to kill newly issued federal rules by a simple majority. And if you've never heard of the Congressional Review Act, you might be seeing it more in the next few months.
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It was established in 1996 to reverse these so-called midnight regulations that administrations pass before they leave office. For clarity's sake, rules don't have to be enacted literally, you know, the night before a president leaves office to be considered a midnight regulation. It just has to happen later on in the president's term.
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For example, this oil drilling rule that Biden's administration imposed was enacted in September. three months before he left office, but it's still considered a midnight regulation for purposes of the Congressional Review Act. Both the Senate and the House plan to vote on more CRA resolutions soon.
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In fact, the Senate Republicans also plan to change several of Biden's other drilling rules in the coming months under CRA jurisdiction. And keep in mind, under the CRA, if a regulation is successfully revoked, agencies cannot use any substantially similar regulation in the future unless authorized by Congress. So it has wider-reaching implications than just the actual resolution that's revoked.
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So again, this resolution will now head to the House, where it's likely to pass due to the Republican majority. All right, let's take our first break here. I will be right back. Welcome back. The Supreme Court heard arguments in an interesting case yesterday called Ames v. Ohio Department of Youth Services.
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And three, issue guidance or proposed regulatory action updating enforcement policies designed to ensure compliance with the transparent reporting of complete, accurate, and meaningful data. Now that last action is arguably the most important because as I said in the beginning of the story, the policy set forth in this order is not actually new. Essentially this order is
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The issue in this case is whether a majority group person, in this case a straight person, a heterosexual person, has to meet a So to provide a bit of context here, in 2004, Marlene Ames began working as an executive secretary at the Ohio Department of Youth Services, which oversees the confinement and rehabilitation of children and teenagers who commit felonies.
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10 years after getting the job, she was appointed as a program administrator. And four years after that, now 2018, she was given a performance evaluation where she was found to have met expectations in 10 categories and exceeded expectations in one. So one year after that performance evaluation, she went ahead and applied for a new position as bureau chief.
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This would have been a promotion, but she didn't get the job. According to her interviewers, she was rejected for the position because she failed to lay out her vision for the role.
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But not only did she not get the job, soon after she applied for the new job, her bosses sat her down, removed her from her current job as program administrator, and gave her the option to go back to her old job where she would take about a 50% pay cut. Notably, Ames did take the pay cut. She did take the demotion. She was later promoted back to a program administrator for a different program.
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Welcome back to Unbiased, your favorite source of unbiased news and legal analysis. Welcome back to Unbiased Politics. Today is Thursday, February 20th. Let's talk about some news, starting off with this new court ruling out of the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, which upholds and actually expands an existing ban on former President Biden's SAVE plan.
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The family of a victim who died in the recent DC plane crash has filed a Form 95, which is the first step in suing the federal government. Specifically, the form was filed against the FAA and the Army, seeking $250 million for wrongful death.
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And then for each $1,000 above that, there was an extra year added. So if you had $13,000 in loans, you were eligible for forgiveness after 11 years of payments, $14,000 in loans eligible for forgiveness after 12 years of payments, so on and so forth.
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So as we know, on January 29th, an American Airlines regional jet and an Army helicopter crashed midair near the Reagan National Airport in D.C., killing everyone involved. One of the victims was coming home from a business trip. He leaves behind a wife and three sons who have now filed the first claim against the federal government.
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A couple of things to note here, because I've seen a lot of headlines that say the first lawsuit has been filed against the government stemming from the DC crash, and that is not entirely accurate. What was filed is a Form 95. A Form 95 is a specific form used when suing the federal government under a law called the Federal Tort Claims Act.
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The claim can be for any type of damage caused by the negligence of a federal government employee within the scope of their employment. So Form 95s can be used in cases of death, but also for property damage and personal injury, just so long as the death, injury, or damage was caused by the negligence of a federal employee within the scope of their employment.
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So a Form 95 is filed before an actual lawsuit. It's the first step in a long and complicated process. But now that the Form 95 has been filed, the FAA and Army have six months to act upon the claims. And if they reject the claims or they don't respond after those six months, the plaintiffs then have a right to file a lawsuit in a federal district court at any point in the next two years.
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The law firm that filed the form on behalf of the family wrote, "...the $250 million claims are directed against multiple governmental agencies that may be responsible.
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The National Transportation Safety Board has reported that staffing in the tower of air traffic controllers was not normal at the time of the nighttime collision and that there were communication lapses between the air traffic controllers and the aircraft." The helicopter in the collision was operated by the Army and was manufactured by a Sikorsky aircraft.
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It is being reported that the Trump administration began notifying hundreds of probationary FAA workers late Friday that they are fired and will be barred from entering their offices effective today. End quote. Now it's time for some New York City news. This week, the Trump administration revoked federal approval for the New York City congestion pricing plan that took effect just last month.
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But what does it mean? We will get there, I promise. First, New York City's congestion pricing plan was the first plan in the country that created a congestion relief zone. Basically, anytime a driver drives south of 60th Street in Manhattan... Between 5 a.m. and 9 p.m. on weekdays and 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. on weekends, they're charged $9. Trucks and buses have a higher rate between $14 and $21.
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The SAVE plan also included other features like preventing unpaid interest from accumulating, a higher income exemption, and a provision allowing married borrowers who file taxes separately to exclude their spouse's income from payment calculations. So following the enactment of the SAVE plan, seven states sued the administration.
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First responders are not exempt from the fees. There are exemptions for school buses, commuter buses, lower income people, and people with medical conditions who can't use public transit.
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The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, or the MTA, said that the funds that are brought in through this plan will be used to improve the existing transportation system in the area, including the subway system, and that tolls would help reduce traffic, reduce pollution, and make the area safer.
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However, those that oppose the plan cite to the MTA's corruption and say that most of the money likely won't be put back into the existing New York City transportation system. They say the tolls are unfair and that this toll only encourages people to ride the unsafe subway.
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Also, there's the argument that many of those that work in the city and commute in for work cannot afford this $9 fee, and those are the ones that are subject to it, whereas those that live in Manhattan and probably won't be subject to this fee on a daily basis because they're less likely to drive or actually more likely to be able to afford it.
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President Trump has said himself, too, that the congestion pricing is a burdensome tax on those who have to drive to work in Manhattan and don't have mass transit options available. So we know that Trump opposes the plan, which means the revocation of approval isn't too surprising.
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But before we get into the reasons why approval was revoked, important to the story is a program called the Value Pricing Pilot Program, or the VPPP, which allows states to apply for the ability to charge tolls for purposes of controlling congestion. outside of a VPP exemption or exception, tolls are prohibited on federally funded roads.
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So to implement this plan, New York had to get this exemption, which it got. But in the recent letter by the new transportation secretary to New York's governor, the transportation secretary says that New York City's congestion pricing plan is actually not eligible for
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for the vppp exception for two reasons one there are no other free alternative roads to take through manhattan and two the tolls were created to generate revenue for the public transportation system but the toll rate set under vppp should not be driven primarily by revenue targets particularly revenue targets that have nothing to do with highway infrastructure
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Importantly, this withdrawal from the federal government doesn't mean an immediate end to the tolls, but the letter does say that the Federal Highway Administration will start working with the New York State Department of Transportation to end them. The MTA, however, has already challenged the revocation of authority, so that may delay things further.
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Okay, before we move on to quick hitters and rumor has it, let's talk about some recent executive orders signed by the president, starting with his IVF order titled expanding access to in vitro fertilization.
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Essentially what it says is that within 90 days, the assistant to the president for domestic policy must present the president with a list of policy recommendations on protecting IVF access and reducing costs for IVF treatment, both out of pocket costs and and health plan related costs. So IVF stands for in vitro fertilization.
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It is a treatment most commonly used to help people experiencing infertility get pregnant. And the purpose involves extracting eggs from a woman's ovaries, taking a male's sperm, and then fertilizing the eggs with that sperm in a lab.
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Missouri, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, North Dakota, Ohio, and Oklahoma. And the states argued, among other things, that the administration had exceeded its authority in implementing save because they argued the secretary of education does not have the authority to actually forgive loans through an income driven repayment plan. The secretary can help make repayment easier.
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One or more of these fertilized eggs, which once they're fertilized, they're called embryos, are then placed into the woman's uterus, and the fetus then hopefully develops in the uterus like it would with natural conception. One round of IVF treatment ranges anywhere from $12,000 to $25,000, and insurance does not always cover it. And on top of that, success is not guaranteed.
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So in some cases, prospective parents may have to go through multiple rounds of IVF. Now, within the last year or so, there has been a bit of controversy surrounding IVF. And the controversy stems from what happens to the embryos that are not placed in a uterus to develop. Sometimes more eggs will become fertilized embryos than a patient will end up using.
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And the question is, what happens to those embryos? Last February, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos are considered children for purposes of wrongful death, which is it's that's a civil claim. It's different than murder and manslaughter.
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But still, that ruling complicated some aspects of the IVF procedure and really got people talking about what potential IVF laws could look like in the future. Following Alabama's decision, the Alabama legislature actually enacted a law protecting the right to IVF. But nonetheless, the decision, you know, out of the court sparked a lot of conversation.
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And if you want the full details of that case and what happened there, listen to my February 23rd, 2024 episode. So February 23rd, 2024.
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Following Alabama's decision, President Trump said that under his leadership, the Republican Party would always support the creation of strong, thriving and healthy American families and that they want to make it easier for mothers and families to have babies, not harder, which includes supporting the availability of fertility treatments like IVF in every state in America.
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Now, I want to draw a distinction between access to IVF and the disposability of unused embryos because Republicans that are against disposing unused embryos don't take issue with the actual access to IVF.
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Their issue is that you can't dispose of an unused embryo because that could be considered murder, whereas the arguments on the other side of that are, one, it's not murder to dispose of unused embryos, and two, that individuals should have the right to do what they want with their unused embryos.
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So Trump expanding access to IVF isn't much of a surprise considering it's not the access that Republicans take issue with. It's what happens after access to those unused embryos. But anyway, that is the gist of the IVF order. The president will be presented with a list of policy recommendations to protecting IVF access and reducing the costs associated with IVF.
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Moving on to this agency accountability order titled Ensuring Accountability for All Agencies. First, the policy. Remember, as with any executive order, there is a policy or purpose and then a directive for executive branch officials to carry out that policy or purpose. So the policy set forth in this order is to ensure presidential supervision and control over the entire executive branch.
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And to carry out that policy, all executive departments and agencies, including independent agencies, are to submit all proposed and final regulatory actions to the executive office of the president for review before publication in the Federal Register.
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It also says that independent agencies are to appoint White House liaisons who will make sure the agency's policies align with presidential priorities. To do this, the president cites to his authority under Article 2 of the Constitution, which vests all executive power in the president.
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And he makes the argument that because all executive power lies with the president, all executive branch employees, including members of independent agencies, should answer to the president. The only independent regulatory agency excluded from this order, by the way, is the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Federal Open Market Committee in its conduct of monetary policy.
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But the secretary can't forgive completely. So upon filing that lawsuit, the states asked for what's called a temporary injunction, which would stop the administration from being able to implement the SAVE plan while the lawsuit was pending. The district court, which is the lowest court in the system, granted that request in part. The district court basically said,
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Now, independent agencies are different from executive agencies in that while they are constitutionally part of the executive branch, they are relatively independent of presidential control, as their name implies. And this is because the president's power to remove heads and members of these independent agencies is limited.
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So heads and members of independent agencies can only be removed for cause by the president, whereas heads and members of other federal departments and agencies can be removed without cause by the president. And this is in part because Congress created these independent agencies to ensure a nonpartisan result. So in a sense, independent agencies are a bit more insulated than other agencies.
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Historically, independent agencies have operated and imposed regulations without direct oversight from the president. So this order seeks to change that. Operations and imposed regulations are usually in line with whatever administration is in office, but not subject to the president's oversight. So this order will almost certainly be constitutionally challenged.
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And the question will come down to what authority does a president actually have over independent agencies? Does Article 2 grant him full power or was Congress's intent to shield these agencies from full presidential power? And if it was Congress's intent to shield these agencies from presidential power, to what extent are they shielded? Now, before we move on to the next order.
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I want to quickly address this provision in the agency accountability order that speaks to the president's authority to interpret laws. The order reads, "...the president and the attorney general, subject to the president's supervision and control, shall provide authoritative interpretations of law for the executive branch.
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The president and the attorney general's opinions on questions of law are controlling on all employees in the conduct of their official duties."
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No employee of the executive branch acting in their official capacity may advance an interpretation of the law as the position of the United States that contravenes the president or the attorney general's opinion on a matter of law, including but not limited to the issuance of regulations, guidance, and positions advanced in litigation unless authorized to do so by the president or in writing by the attorney general.
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End quote. This provision... Of course, raises constitutional questions. The separation of powers goes like this. Congress makes the laws, the court interprets the laws, and the executive branch enforces the laws. So for the president to say that he and the attorney general shall provide authoritative interpretations of the law for the executive branch is likely an overstep.
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Interpretation of law, and this is just a fact in the Constitution, is strictly reserved for the courts. Now, keep in mind that the order specifically says the president and the attorney general shall interpret law for the executive branch, not the judicial or legislative branches. But still, likely unconstitutional, will probably be challenged in the courts.
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OK, let's take our second and final break of the episode. When I come back, we'll touch on another one, possibly two of the president's recent orders, some quick hitters and rumor has it. Welcome back. Moving on to this next order from the president titled Keeping Education Accessible and Ending COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates in School.
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We're going to put on pause the loan forgiveness feature of the plan, but the administration can still implement the other features like the reduced payment threshold and the bar on interest accrual. From there, both parties actually appeal to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals.
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This order prohibits federal funds from being used to support or subsidize any educational institution that requires students to have received a COVID vaccine in order to attend in-person education programs. So first the policy. The order reads, End quote.
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In line with that policy, the order directs the HHS secretary and the secretary of education to establish compliance guidelines and to provide a plan to end coercive COVID-19 vaccine mandates. Notably, this order only applies to COVID-19 vaccines. So what happened is that during the pandemic, some colleges, universities, K-12 school districts enacted COVID-19 vaccine mandates.
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According to an article from U.S. News, which reported on college vaccine requirements for the fall of 2021, more than 680 public and private colleges across the United States required students to get a COVID vaccine to attend. However, since then, many mandates have been lifted.
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According to No College Mandates, a group advocating for an end to COVID vaccine mandates, 15 colleges and universities still have some requirements for COVID-19 vaccines. I personally was only able to verify 13 of those still requiring the vaccine. The others had limited information or appeared to be strong recommendations. of vaccination instead of actual requirements.
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And then finally, there are no K-12 schools in the United States that currently require the COVID vaccine to attend. So there you have it. And now for this final order. Yesterday, the president signed an order to ensure taxpayer dollars are not being used to support or incentivize illegal immigration.
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i'm quoting there i just didn't say the quotes first the purpose the purpose of the order is to establish that taxpayer resources are used to protect american citizens interests and not those of illegal aliens in line with that policy the order directs the heads of each agency or department to one identify current federally funded programs that provide financial benefits to illegal aliens and correct those actions
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Two, ensure states don't use federal funds to support sanctuary policies or assist in illegal immigration. And three, enhance eligibility verification to ensure that ineligible aliens do not receive taxpayer-funded benefits. According to the U.S.
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The Biden administration appealed because they felt the injunction went too far, whereas the states felt the injunction didn't go far enough. So in this week's ruling, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals not only agreed with the states, but expanded the scope of the injunction and blocked the save plan in its entirety.
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House Homeland Security Committee, support provided for illegal aliens and gotaways that have entered the United States since January 2021 could cost as much as $451 billion in federal funds. And just to clarify, gotaways refers to those that the federal government knows unlawfully crossed the border but were not apprehended or sent back.
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As with any order, we don't know if this one will be upheld if challenged, and that's because the specific law that the order cites to for authority says that it is U.S. policy that aliens within the nation's borders do not depend on public resources to meet their needs, but rather rely on their own capabilities and the resources of their families, their sponsors, and private organizations.
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The law in question goes on to say that it is a compelling government interest to remove the incentive for illegal immigration provided by the availability of public benefits. So if this order is challenged, which I'm sure it will be, it'll be up to the courts to interpret that particular law and determine whether that law provides a proper basis for this executive order.
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And now it's time for some quick hitters, just a few today, starting with Senator Mitch McConnell, who announced he will not seek re-election when his current term is up in 2027. You may feel like this headline sounds a bit familiar, and that's because he announced last year that he wouldn't seek re-election for his position as Senate leader, and he didn't.
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The new Senate GOP leader is Senator Thune. McConnell has suffered multiple health challenges and falls in recent months, so his announcement doesn't come as too much of a surprise. President Trump's pick for FBI Director Kash Patel was confirmed by the Senate today. The final vote was 51 to 49. And according to a new CDC report, rates of drug overdoses decreased from 2022 to 2023.
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The rate of overdose deaths fell from 32.6 deaths per 100,000 people in 2022 to 31.3 deaths per 100,000 people in 2023. And finally, rumor has it, my weekly segment where I either confirm, dispel, or add context to recent rumors submitted by all of you. Rumor has it that the federal government may be handing out a $5,000 check to every U.S. taxpayer called a Doge dividend.
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Let's add some context here. For one, this idea came not from the president himself nor Elon Musk even, but instead from an ex-user named James Fishback. Fishback published this four-page idea earlier in the week called The Case for a Doge Dividend. Fishback is an investor, writer, and entrepreneur. He's also acted as a public advocate for Doge, but he does not hold a formal position with Doge.
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So here's what he outlined in his dividend proposal, and then we'll talk about how Musk and the president have reacted to this proposal. So Fishback says Doge has a target of $2 trillion in total savings, and he suggests taking 20% of that target, which would be equivalent to $400 billion, and returning it to the 79 million U.S. taxpaying households by way of a $5,000 refund check per household.
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He says the checks could be distributed as early as the summer of 2026, which following a thorough review by Doge. He says issuing these checks would encourage American taxpayers to report waste, fraud, and abuse, which would increase the total savings by Doge and the size of the Doge dividend check.
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Specifically, the court said, "...we conclude that the district court correctly did not limit its injunction, but erred by not preliminary enjoining the entire rule." The court felt that by not blocking the plan in its entirety would lead to confusion and chaos and that it made more sense to do as it instructed. So what can we expect from here?
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He says it would compensate Americans for the egregious misuse and abuse of their hard-earned tax dollars. It would restore the public trust between taxpayers and the government, and it would encourage labor force participation since only those who pay federal income tax in 2025 would be eligible. Fischbach answered the question of whether this proposal would be inflationary. He said no.
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He said first, Doge dividend checks would be exclusively funded with Doge-driven savings, unlike the COVID stimulus checks, which were financed by deficits. And second, the checks would only be sent to taxpaying households, which he claims tend to save, not spend, the extra money.
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He cited a 2019 CNBC survey which found that 71% of Americans who unexpectedly received a $5,000 bonus from work received would use it to pay off debt, save for emergencies, or invest in long-term goals like college. When asked whether the proposal would increase the deficit, Fishback again answered no.
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He says that because the total cuts would be five times the Doge dividend payout, the government would still be saving money. So following the publication of this proposal, Musk replied on X that he would check in with the president. However, Musk also wrote on X on Wednesday that balancing the budget remains Doge's top priority.
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As for the president, he acknowledged the proposal dividend while attending the Future Investment Initiative Institute event in Miami this week and said the numbers behind the proposal are quote unquote incredible, but did not indicate whether he was considering the proposal.
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Rumor has it that tens of millions of dead people over 100 years old, even up to 300 years old, are receiving Social Security payments. This is false. While improper Social Security payments do exist, and we'll get to those numbers in a minute, the millions of people referenced in the claim is overstated and misrepresents Social Security data. So let's talk about this.
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Elon Musk first made the claim during a February 11th Oval Office press conference, and these claims were followed by a series of posts on X, which one of them reads, "...having tens of millions of people marked in Social Security as alive when they are definitely dead is a huge problem, obviously. Some of these people would have been alive before America existed as a country.
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Think about that for a second." Accompanying this post, Musk posted a screenshot allegedly taken from the Social Security database which shows that millions of people over the age of 120 are collecting benefits. And the president echoed a similar storyline earlier this week. So let's first understand what Social Security is.
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Social Security provides income for retirees, people with disabilities, and families with a deceased spouse or parent. The Central Social Security Database, known as NUMIDENT or Numerical Identification System, contains information on every social security number issued since 1936.
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It contains individuals' name, date of birth, race, gender, place of birth, citizenship status, social security number applications, claim records, death information, and requested changes to social security number information.
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Now, this Numident system, like many other government systems, uses the COBOL programming language, which is a 60-year-old programming language that is actually used by many U.S. agencies, but it's rarely used today in other contexts because of its weaknesses, namely its date inaccuracy, which we'll talk about.
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Well, the Trump administration, which has since been substituted for the Biden administration in this case, can obviously choose to file an appeal and go to the Supreme Court, but I don't anticipate the current administration doing that. So what will most likely happen is this plan will remain blocked
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The thing with COBOL is it doesn't have a standardized way to store and work with dates. And I don't want to get too into the weeds with coding jargon, but what I will say is that dates in COBOL have to be coded to a reference point. The most common reference point is May 20th, 1875, when the standard was created.
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Anyway, like I said, don't want to get too into the defaults, missing or incomplete birth dates to these reference points, often May 20th, So if someone applies for Social Security without a birth date or with incomplete birth date information, they might automatically be recorded as 150 years old in the database.
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So there are cases where people's ages are incorrect, but there are also cases where death dates have been defaulted as well. And some cases where death information just wasn't even recorded, which means some people are still considered alive in the system despite being dead.
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A 2023 audit by the Social Security Administration's Office of the Inspector General investigated Social Security number holders older than 100 years old. who did not have death information recorded but were still in the pneumodent system.
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so there are actually a few things i want to address here i of course want to tell you why the court ruled the way that it did but i also want to talk about why we're still seeing these loan forgiveness cases in the courts because i know a lot of people get confused at the fact that the supreme court already struck down one of biden's loan forgiveness plans in 2023 yet here we are still seeing these loan forgiveness plans being implemented and challenged in the courts so we'll clear that up as well but first i want to talk about what the save plan is
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That audit, which used data updated as of December 2020, found that there were 18.9 million registrants in the Social Security Administration database born in or before 1920 whose death record information was not properly recorded, meaning these 18 million individuals were technically still recorded as alive in the system despite being dead.
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However, that same audit found that approximately 98% of these number holders were not receiving Social Security payments and had not reported earnings to the Social Security Administration in the last 50 years. Of course, what that means, too, is the other 2% were receiving payments, which is about 44,000 people.
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A similar 2015 audit found 6.5 million people with no death information above the age of 112 in Numident, but that only 266 payments were sent to beneficiaries recorded as 112 or older. Following that 2015 audit, auditors recommended fixes to the Pneuma death information records, which included replacing COBOL, but Social Security Administration officials disagreed with that recommendation.
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Social Security Administration officials said that the time and resources that it would take to correct records for non-beneficiaries would just divert resources from more necessary work and that it wasn't worth it. The most recent Inspector General report from July 2024 on fiscal years 2015 to 2022 found $71.8 billion in improper payments during those seven years.
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until the district court hears actual arguments on the merits of the case and issues a more final decision. At that point, when the district court issues a decision, the district court can either choose to strike the plan down completely, leave parts of it in effect, or allow it to take effect in its entirety. Then from there, whoever the losing party is
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However, that same report noted that $71.8 billion, while it sounds like a lot, amounts to less than 1% of the total payments during that time period and were likely due to overpayments to living people, not payments to dead people. And then finally, it's also worth noting that as of September 2015, the Social Security Administration automatically stops payments to recipients over the age of 115.
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So that's what you need to know. Yes, there are some improper payments going out to people that are dead. But based off of what we know, based off the information we have, that number is closer to 44,000, not tens of millions. That is what I have for you today. Thank you so much for being here. Have a fantastic weekend. I will talk to you on Monday.
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can choose to once again appeal to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals. Because remember, the decision we talked about today was simply a temporary injunction. What should happen with the SAVE plan while the lawsuit plays out in court? At this point, neither the district court nor the Eighth Circuit have actually heard the merits of the case or issued a final decision on the matter.
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So that still has to happen. Now, I quickly want to address why the courts are still hearing loan forgiveness cases despite the Supreme Court striking down Biden's loan forgiveness plan in 2023. The short answer is that the loan forgiveness plan struck down in 2023 was based on a different law, a different piece of authority.
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The administration had previously tried to use the HEROES Act to cancel more than $400 billion in loans. The HEROES Act was enacted post-9-11 and said in part that, those affected by the national emergency that was 9-11, or actually, it was more general language.
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It said those affected by a national emergency, but in that case, 9-11, it was first responders, families of victims, etc., were entitled to loan forgiveness. And President Biden tried to argue that most Americans had been affected by the national emergency that was the pandemic. And therefore, the HEROES Act permitted up to $20,000 in loan forgiveness for qualifying individuals.
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But the Supreme Court said no, the HEROES Act does not authorize broad student debt cancellation. So from there, the administration went back to the drawing board, came up with these other forgiveness plans that are based on different laws, different authority, not the HEROES Act. And now it's up to the courts to decide whether these other laws allow for these other loan forgiveness programs.
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Okay, let's now move on to the egg shortage. I want to talk about not only why we're experiencing an egg shortage, but also address this claim that the Biden administration directed the mass killing of more than 100 million chickens, which is contributing to the shortage. So the main cause of this egg shortage is because of a bird flu outbreak.
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The bird flu is a respiratory disease of birds, as you might imagine, and it's incredibly contagious and it can be fatal. The current outbreak that we're experiencing right now actually started back in 2022. And since then, it has affected around 159 million birds in the United States. Naturally, due to the outbreak, there are less chickens, which means less eggs.
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In addition to the outbreak, though, there's also this unrelated shortage of cage-free eggs specifically. And that's because eight states... have laws that require cage-free eggs. The issue with that is that only about 121 million of the 304 million chickens laying eggs nationwide are raised on cage-free farms. So the supply is limited.
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In fact, to help with the already limited supply amid the bird flu outbreak, Nevada actually just suspended their cage-free law. They're hoping it helps with egg availability in the state, but it's not a guaranteed fix. According to current data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the national average price of eggs has reached a new high, increasing more than 15% in January from the month before.
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On average, consumers are paying $4.95 for a dozen of large grade A eggs, but these prices obviously vary depending on region and type of egg and all of that stuff. I actually went to Trader Joe's the other day. I got a dozen eggs for $4.99, which I didn't think was too bad.
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But because Trader Joe's limits you to one dozen per person because of the shortage, I then went to Whole Foods down the street. And Whole Foods was out of every brand except for one, and I ended up paying $9.49 for that dozen. So the prices definitely vary widely by type, store, all of those things. But anyway...
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To compare the current average of $4.95 to the last couple of January's, January 2024, the average price of eggs was around $2.52. The January before that, January 2023, we were almost where we are today at $4.82 per dozen. Unfortunately, we're not likely to see prices come down anytime soon. The outbreak still isn't under control.
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And the Department of Agriculture is expecting prices to continue to increase by another 20% before they start to come down. So that's what we got going on in the world of eggs. But before we move on, did the Biden administration direct the killing of 100 million chickens, as the current White House press secretary stated in a recent press conference? Yes, and it was done per federal regulations.
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The SAVE plan is also called, or it is called, I should say, the Saving on a Valuable Education plan. And it is an income-driven repayment plan that the Biden administration introduced in an attempt to make student loan repayment more affordable. Income-driven, meaning your monthly student loan payment is based on your income.
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So according to US Department of Agriculture policy, when an outbreak occurs, the whole flock affected has to be killed to prevent the spread of the virus to other flocks. So since the outbreak started in 2022, the USDA has directed the killing more than 100 million chickens. In fact, as sad as it might be, the chicken killings are still happening today to stop the spread.
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So that's what you need to know about the egg shortage and the chicken killing claim. We can now move on to the next story. Some more Doge-related news. It feels like we're talking about Doge in almost every episode, which we probably are.
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This story is another Doge Access lawsuit, but I'm also going to tie in what we know about Musk's role in Doge because a lot of people, including myself, are all kinds of confused. We've obviously talked about the various lawsuits challenging Doge's access to various departments and agencies within the government.
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But this one specifically was filed by 14 different states against Doge, which is the Department of Government Efficiency. Also, the U.S. Doge Service Temporary Organization, which we'll talk about in a little bit. and President Trump. This particular lawsuit is challenging Doge's access to not just one department, but multiple executive departments.
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So the Departments of Education, Labor, Health and Human Services, Energy, Transportation, and Commerce, plus also the Office of Personnel Management, which is an office within the executive branch. So remember how earlier in the episode in that save plan case, we talked about the states seeking a temporary injunction to block the plan from being enforced while the case plays out in court.
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That is what the states did here. So the states asked the court for a temporary restraining order, which is basically the same thing as a temporary injunction, to stop Doge from accessing, copying, or transferring any data systems within all of the departments that we just mentioned and to stop Doge from terminating or placing on leave any employees within those departments.
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Now, the thing with injunctions is that in order to be granted, the court has to find that the parties seeking the injunction, in this case the 14 states, have a likelihood of winning the case once arguments are eventually heard, and that they will suffer a reparable injury if the injunction isn't granted.
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In this case, the court denied the request for the injunction, which is a different outcome than we've seen in most of the cases challenging Doge's access because the judge here found that the states failed to provide evidence of imminent and irreparable harm without the injunction.
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Notably, the judge did call into question the actions of Doge, but ultimately felt that the requested restraining order was too broad to grant. The judge wrote, "...plaintiff legitimately calls into question what appears to be the unchecked authority of an unelected individual and an entity that was not created by Congress and over which it has no oversight.
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In these circumstances, it must be indisputable that this court acts within the bounds of its authority." Accordingly, it cannot issue a temporary restraining order, especially one as wide ranging as plaintiffs request without clear evidence of imminent irreparable harm to these plaintiffs. The current record does not meet that standard.
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Under SAVE, payments for undergraduate loans were capped at 5% of discretionary income, and this was a significant reduction from the 10% previously required. Furthermore, and this is the part that matters most, borrowers with smaller loan balances, so balances $12,000 or less, were eligible to have their loans completely forgiven after 10 years of payments.
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Now, part two of this conversation is that this case raised a lot of questions about Musk's role in Doge. As we know, President Trump has said that Elon Musk is leading Doge even as recent as two days ago. But then an affidavit was filed in this case by the director of the Office of Administration for the White House. And that affidavit, which is a sworn statement,
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said that musk is not the u.s doge service administrator nor is he an employee of the u.s doge service or an employee of the u.s doge service temporary organization Instead, he said, Musk is just an employee of the White House. He is a senior advisor to President Trump. The affidavit says that Musk holds his position as an employee of the White House as a non-career special government employee.
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And in that job, he is a senior advisor to the president. And in his role as senior advisor, he has no greater authority than other senior White House advisors. The affidavit says, like other senior White House advisors, Musk has no actual or formal authority to make government decisions himself. He can only advise the president and communicate the president's directives.
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So naturally, a lot of people are like, what? I thought Musk was the head of Doge, and so did I. Unfortunately, I still don't have a clear-cut answer for you, so all I can do is tell you what I have gathered. And this is going to get confusing, okay? This is fair warning. It is going to get confusing, but feel free to listen twice or three times if you have to.
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President Trump signed an executive order recently that renamed the already existing U.S. Digital Service the U.S. Doge Service. The U.S. Digital Service was an Obamacare office to make government software better and more efficient. By renaming the U.S. Digital Service the U.S. Doge Service, Trump did two things. One, he insured funding from Congress since funding for the U.S.
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Digital Service already existed. And two, he insured its legality, for now at least. You know, it can be challenged and possibly a court decides differently, but for now.
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According to that order, though, the purpose of the US Doge service is very similar to the purpose of the prior US digital service, which is to modernize federal technology and software to maximize government efficiency and productivity. But within the U.S. Doge service, Trump created this new temporary organization called the U.S. Doge Service Temporary Organization.
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It'll terminate on July 4th, 2026. It's just temporary. It's exactly what it sounds like. It's a temporary organization. And that organization is to be headed by the U.S. Doge Service Administrator and will be dedicated to advancing the president's 18-month Doge agenda. In other words, the U.S. Doge Service is more of a modernizing federal technology and software agency, whereas the U.S.
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Doge Service Temporary Organization... which is within the U.S. Doge service, is what we know Doge as, the entity that is identifying misuse, waste, fraud, etc. within the government. But here's where things don't add up, and I warned you this was going to get confusing. The order says that the U.S. Doge service temporary organization is headed by the U.S. Doge service administrator.
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The affidavit in court specifically says that Musk is not the U.S. Doge service administrator. But like I said, the president has said as recently as this week that Musk is leading Doge. So I don't get it. It's not often that I say that, but truly, I do not know what Musk's true position is. If we get some clarity on it, I will, of course, update you accordingly.
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But that is what we know as of now. And I think this is a good time for our first break, since I know I just rattled your brains a bit. So let's take our first break here. We'll hear from some of our sponsors that we love so much, and I will be right back. Welcome back.
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Welcome back to Unbiased, your favorite source of unbiased news and legal analysis. Welcome back to Unbiased Politics. Today is Monday, February 24th. Let's talk about some news. So let's start with some news from the end of last week and then we'll work our way to some news from today. At the end of last week, the Senate passed their own budget resolution.
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According to the Wall Street Journal, in 2021, $8.7 billion in federal funds were paid to UnitedHealthcare for diagnoses patients were never actually treated for. Now on to this federal email, the story everyone's requesting. On Saturday, the Office of Personnel Management sent an email to federal employees asking them to list five things they accomplished last week.
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The subject line reads, what did you do last week? The body of the email instructed employees to reply with five bullet points, summarizing their work accomplishments from the previous week and to CC their managers, but also cautioned employees not to include any classified information, links or attachments. The response deadline was set for today, Monday at 1159 p.m. Eastern Time.
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Importantly, the email did not say what would happen if employees chose not to respond to the email. However, Elon Musk, despite having no decision-making authority, wrote on X that failure to respond would be taken as resignation. So let's talk a little bit about the OPM, what role it plays in the government, what authority it has, and how Elon Musk factors into this entire situation.
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the office of personnel management or the opm is an independent agency of the federal government that operates under the direction of the president and manages the federal workforce this includes overseeing federal employee policies benefits hiring practices etc it's basically the hr department for the government the opm does not hire or fire employees outside of the opm it can recommend that outside departments issue layoffs but it cannot actually issue layoffs itself
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Elon Musk does not have a role within the OPM, but his role as a special government employee grants him the ability to contribute his expertise from the private sector to public service initiatives. This means he can offer his opinion and his thoughts, but he doesn't have any decision-making power himself.
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The Senate is pushing a more narrow budget resolution focused on increasing spending for immigration, national security, and domestic energy production, and outlines a broader deficit reduction strategy than the House. As for Trump's tax cuts, those are not included in the Senate's resolution. The Senate says it'll deal with that down the road in separate legislation.
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However, because of his influence he's had over the government's decisions since Inauguration Day, people are concerned that if they don't respond to the OPM email, they may be fired by their respective agencies and departments, per Musk's suggestion. Musk followed up his post on X regarding termination with another post that said, quote, "...to be clear, the bar here is very low.
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An email with some bullet points that make any sense at all is acceptable. Should take less than five minutes to write." End quote. So can the OPM demand five bullet points? That is the question. Since the email was sent out, some federal departments have instructed their employees to ignore the email, at least for now, while they await more guidance.
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At least one department has instructed employees to respond to the email and one lawsuit has been filed. So here's what we know. The Pentagon, the DOJ, the State Department, the Department of Energy, and multiple agencies within these departments, as well as other agencies like the CDC, the NOAA, and the IRS, have instructed their employees to wait for legal guidance before responding.
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The State Department told its employees that the department would respond to the email on behalf of the employees and said in a message to the workers within the department, "...no employee is obligated to report their activities outside of their department chain of command."
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The newly confirmed FBI director, Kash Patel, also told FBI employees not to respond, saying, "...the FBI, through the office of the director, is in charge of all of our review processes and will conduct reviews in accordance with FBI procedures. When and if further information is required, we will coordinate the responses. For now, please pause any responses."
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The Department of Veterans Affairs, on the other hand, told its employees that the email is quote-unquote valid and reiterated the OPM's message that the response to the email is not to include any classified HIPAA or personally identifiable information. The lawsuit says that the OPM's email is unlawful.
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A group of federal unions argue that because the OPM's email had not been announced in advance in the Federal Register as a policy or program, it does not comply with federal regulations. So the Federal Register is the official publication for federal rules, proposed rules, notices by and for federal agencies and organizations, as well as executive orders and other presidential documents.
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It's updated every weekday by 6 a.m. Now, the thing about the Federal Register is that the federal agencies have to follow certain rules. And under the Federal Register Act, rules and notices that have a substantial impact on the public must be filed with the Office of the Federal Register to be enforceable.
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This allows the public to have time to review and comment on a proposed policy before it's finalized. So the unions argue that federal employees have never been required to submit any reports regarding their work to the OPM until now. And therefore, it's a new policy that should have been published in the Federal Register. And because it wasn't, it cannot be enforced.
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However, the argument on the other side of that is that this new policy does not have a substantial impact on the public and therefore isn't required to be published beforehand. So we'll see what happens here. The unions have asked a federal judge for emergency intervention. We'll have to see if the judge grants that request, doesn't get involved yet. We'll have to see.
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Speaking of lawsuits, though, on Friday, the Associated Press filed a lawsuit against three Trump administration officials after it was denied access to the Oval Office. The controversy between the outlet and the administration started after the Gulf of Mexico was renamed the Gulf of America.
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Following the name change, the AP said it would continue referring to the body of water as the Gulf of Mexico. And subsequently, the outlet was banned from covering the president in the Oval Office. The AP was still allowed to attend and is still allowed to attend press briefings in the briefing room. It's allowed on other White House grounds, but it is not allowed in the president's office.
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So again, because the resolutions passed by the House and Senate do differ, the next step is for both parties chambers to reconcile those differences to produce a unified resolution. This process typically involves a conference committee, which is a group of appointed members from both the House and the Senate who negotiate to resolve disparities between the two versions.
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The AP has since accused the administration of violating its Fifth Amendment right to due process and its First Amendment right of freedom of the press. The AP has requested that a judge issue an emergency order restoring the outlet's access to the Oval Office, and the judge is set to make a decision on that request today.
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Earlier this week, roughly 40 news organizations signed onto a letter written by the White House Correspondents Association urging the White House to reverse its decision against the AP. The letter was signed by outlets all across the political spectrum, including CNN, NPR, Fox News, Newsmax, and more.
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And in its own statement about the situation, Newsmax said, "...we can understand President Trump's frustration because the media has often been unfair to him." But Newsmax still supports AP's right as a private organization to use the language it wants to use in its reporting. We fear a future administration may not like something Newsmax writes and seek to ban us."
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As for the Trump administration, administration attorneys wrote in their response to the AP's lawsuit, quote, The president has absolute discretion to give interviews to whomever he pleases. The First Amendment does not compel him to give a personal audience to any particular journalist.
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That same discretion extends to whom he allows into the Oval Office, his personal workspace, Air Force One, his personal plane, and Mar-a-Lago, his private residence. The president's discretion over these small spaces simply does not implicate constitutional rights for citizens, journalists, or news organizations alike.
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end quote so basically the gist of the administration's argument is that the oval office is different than other white house grounds because the president has discretion in deciding who he lets into his private spaces and those private spaces do not come with a constitutional right like other white house grounds do so stay tuned because like i said the judge in that case is supposed to decide today
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whether the AP can temporarily be allowed back into the Oval Office while the legal proceedings play out. And that decision will ultimately come down to whether the judge believes the AP has a likelihood of succeeding on the merits of its claim, and whether by not allowing the AP back into the Oval Office for purposes of reporting, the AP and the public would suffer some sort of harm.
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Let's take our second and final break here, and I will be right back.
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Welcome back. According to multiple outlets, the Trump administration has circulated an internal memo detailing plans to track down hundreds of thousands of migrant children who entered the United States without their parents. Importantly, this memo has not been released to the public, so I'm reporting based on the information that has been reported by various news outlets that have seen the memo.
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I have not personally seen it. The memo is reportedly written by ICE and titled, quote, unaccompanied alien children joint initiative field implementation, end quote.
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The memo's stated initiative is to ensure migrant children are not victims of human trafficking or victims of other forms of exploitation, and consequently, it directs immigration agents to track down migrant children who entered the United States without their parents.
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Once an agreement is reached, that's when the new agreed upon budget resolution is presented to both chambers for their approval. And if that passes both chambers, that is when the reconciliation process can begin and Congress can start enacting tax and spending laws that meet their agreed upon fiscal goals.
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The memo reportedly states that the children will be served a notice to appear in immigration court or deported if deportation orders were pending against them. According to the memo, ICE has collected data on unaccompanied minors and has created three groups, flight risk, public safety, and border security.
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The priority will be to track down flight risk minors, including those who have received orders of deportation for missing court hearings. The memo outlines four phases of implementation, with the first phase, the planning phase, to have already commenced on January 27th, but it does not provide a start date for enforcement operations.
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To give you some numbers as to how many unaccompanied minors have entered the United States in recent years, since 2022, there have been just under 425,000 CBP encounters with unaccompanied minors nationally, with roughly 422,000 of those encounters happening at the US-Mexico border. So let's talk about what the law says.
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Under federal law, migrants who have exhausted their legal options to stay in the country can be removed even if they are children. The government typically prioritizes adults, especially those adults with criminal records, but children can be deported as well. When an unaccompanied minor is apprehended, they're usually taken into Office of Refugee Resettlement Custody
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From there, they're typically released to sponsors while immigration authorities weigh their case to remain in the country. Now, you may remember during the vice presidential debate, Vice President Vance said that DHS has effectively lost 320,000 children. More recently, in December, Trump's incoming border czar, Tom Homan, similarly said the U.S.
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cannot find 300,000 migrant children who he says could have been lured into forced labor and sex trafficking. Those claims stem from a 2024 report that I had previously reported on from the Office of the Inspector General that found 32,000 unaccompanied minors who had illegally entered the U.S.
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have not shown up for immigration court, and more than 291,000 never even received a summons to appear in court between the years 2019 and 2023. The report stated that ICE could not monitor the location and status of all unaccompanied migrant children or initiate removal proceedings as needed.
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The report reads, quote, During our ongoing audit to assess ICE's ability to monitor the location and status of unaccompanied children who were released or transferred from the custody of DHS and HHS, We learned ICE transferred more than 448,000 UCs, unaccompanied children, to HHS from fiscal years 2019 to 2023.
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However, ICE was not able to account for the location of all UCs who were released by HHS and did not appear as scheduled in immigration court. ICE reported more than 32,000 UCs failed to appear for their immigration court hearings this from fiscal years 2019 to 2023, end quote.
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So that report was a big talking point for Republicans during the election cycle, and this new internal memo is in line with those concerns. Now, there's a parallel storyline here that the Trump administration had issued a stop work order to the Acacia Center for Justice last week,
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Moving on, last week, the Trump administration announced it'll be canceling temporary protected status for hundreds of thousands of Haitians that were granted the status under the Biden administration.
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And even though it has since been rescinded, that order has since been rescinded, I do want to talk about it because quite a few of you had questions about it. So the Acacia Center for Justice has a federal contract with the Office of Refugee Resettlement to provide legal services for unaccompanied migrants younger than 18 that were either in the office's custody or had been released.
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Under federal law, migrants are not guaranteed the right to free legal representation like citizens are. But in the past, federal funds have allowed nonprofit groups like Acacia to provide lawyers for children. So last week on Tuesday, the Trump administration had issued this stop work order to Acacia. But as of Friday, the administration rescinded that order.
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Acacia said they received notice from the administration that it can immediately resume work providing representation and legal access services to unaccompanied children. So that's what you need to know about that. Now we can briefly talk about the new FBI deputy director, Dan Bongino, before we move on to quick hitters. So who is Dan Bongino?
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Some are referring to him as a conservative podcaster, others are referring to him as a former Secret Service agent, and the truth is he is both. Bongino previously worked for the NYPD before joining the Secret Service, and he served on the presidential Secret Service details for both former Presidents Obama and George W. Bush.
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He ran for a Senate seat in Maryland in 2012, then for congressional seats in Maryland in 2014, and Florida in 2016, though he did lose all three of those races. He's worked for Fox News. He hosted a Saturday night show with the outlet from 2021 to 2023.
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And more recently, he started his own podcast called The Dan Bongino Show, which he will now reportedly still host despite taking on the new role of FBI deputy director. So the role of the FBI deputy director does not require Senate confirmation. The deputy director is one of four members of the FBI senior staff and serves under the FBI director.
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So to provide a bit of a background, under the Biden administration, temporary protected status was expanded to around 1 million immigrants from 17 different countries, Venezuela, Honduras, Nicaragua, Afghanistan, Ukraine, and more. Specifically for the Haitians, the Biden administration granted the most recent TPS protections in July 2024, which were supposed to last through February 2026.
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The deputy director is the FBI director's second in command and is responsible for the Bureau's day-to-day law enforcement operations. Bongino does not have prior experience with the FBI, but does have extensive outside law enforcement experience. So that's a little bit about him.
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And now it's time for some quick hitters, starting with some numbers from the first month of New York City's congestion pricing plan. We talked last week about the federal government revoking authority for the program, but some new numbers have since came in.
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And it looks like the pricing plan raised $48.6 million in its first month and reduced traffic by 10% with 2.6 million less vehicles south of 60th Street. Of the roughly $48 million in revenue, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority will collect $37.5 million of net revenue.
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And New York's governor met with President Trump on Friday to try to protect the plan, but it's not clear whether they discussed a possible resolution to the lawsuit that was filed by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority last week. Apple announced its largest-ever spend commitment today with plans to invest $500 billion in the United States over the next four years.
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The plans include hiring 20,000 workers, opening a new facility in Houston to produce servers that support AI, doubling Apple's U.S. Advanced Manufacturing Fund, and opening a new Apple Manufacturing Academy in Detroit.
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Sources say that the Trump administration has stopped efforts to place migrants in tent structures built at Guantanamo amid concerns that the tent facilities don't meet detention standards due to the lack of air conditioning and electricity.
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The administration had previously said it would be building out tent structures to house roughly 30,000 migrants, but as of today, sources say that those tents don't meet the detention standards set forth by ICE.
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It's worth noting, though, that there are not many migrants currently at Guantanamo, and those that are there are not being housed in newly constructed tents, but rather the existing detention facility. Last week, more than 170 migrants were flown to Venezuela, which nearly emptied out Guantanamo, and since then, only 17 more migrants have arrived at Guantanamo.
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Now for some news out of the national parks. Due to the recent layoffs of National Park Service employees, the following changes have taken effect across the country. Carlsbad Caverns National Park has canceled guided tours indefinitely. Cave tours at Great Basin National Park are now available only as staffing permits.
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Yosemite National Park has delayed the sale of summer permits for five campgrounds indefinitely. Saguaro National Park has closed its visitor centers on Mondays, and the Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument is now closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.
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Importantly, the National Park Service has promised to hire thousands of seasonal workers, so it's unclear whether these changes will last into season when and if those employees are hired.
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And a federal judge today blocked the Trump administration from conducting immigration enforcement actions at a handful of churches, temples, and other places of worship that sued over the administration's new immigration policy. However, the judge did not implement a nationwide restraining order. This order only applies to the particular parties that filed suit last month.
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And now it's time for some critical thinking. For today's critical thinking segment, let's go back to the story about the five things email. It's been a few weeks since I last incorporated a critical thinking segment into the podcast. So just as a refresher, these segments are just to get you thinking a little bit deeper about a particular issue in a world where
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We're constantly consuming content and other people's opinions. I think it's incredibly important to check back in with ourselves from time to time and ask ourselves where our own opinions lie. It's nothing crazy. The questions aren't meant to be incredibly complex. It's just a little exercise for the brain. So let's go back to the five things email.
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The Trump administration now says the TPS protections for Haitians will end in August of this year. Now, temporary protected status was created by Congress in 1990. And it guarantees that migrants who are unable to return to their country due to unrest or natural disaster can remain in the United States via work authorization without fearing deportation.
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The Office of Personnel Management, which is essentially the HR department of the federal government, has asked federal employees to list five things they accomplished last week. First, what are your initial thoughts here? How do you feel about this email? Do you support it or are you against it and why? It's always good to ask yourself why you think the way you do.
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Now, I want you to think about this email from two different perspectives, first as an employee and then as an employer. Outside the government, by the way, imagine yourself in your current role as an employee or your current role as an employer. Or if you're not employed, just picture yourself anywhere. You can be an accountant at Coca-Cola for this exercise.
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You can be the CEO of Walmart, whatever you want to do. If you're an employee and you receive this email from your boss, Would you have an issue with it? Would you respond without hesitation? Would you respond but with hesitation? Or would you ignore it? And would your answer change depending on how productive you were?
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So if you're an incredibly hard worker, you get a lot done, are you excited to respond with five things you accomplished? Or are you still reluctant? Maybe you didn't get much done last week, whether by choice or due to life circumstances. Are you excited to respond or are you more reluctant? And ask yourself, are your feelings about this email that you received as an employee?
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Are those feelings a response to your work product or your boss's request? All answers are acceptable. By the way, this is just a mental check-in with yourself. Okay, now let's move on to the other perspective. Feel free to pause this episode if you want to take a second to think about those questions that we just posed. We can always go back. You can always rewind, whatever.
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Let's move on to the other perspective. You are the boss. Part of your job is to ensure the company is running as efficiently as possible. Number one, would you send an email to your employees asking them what they've accomplished in the last week and why or why not?
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And two, regardless of whether you would or not, would you want the ability to do something like this without pushback from your employees? And then I guess a third question is, would you expect your employees to respond without hesitation or would you expect some pushback?
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And after answering those questions and assessing how you feel from both perspectives, I want you to check back in with how you felt initially about the email and see if your answer has changed or if it stays the same. That is what I have for you today. Thank you so much for being here. As always, have a fantastic next couple of days. I will talk to you again on Thursday.
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TPS is intended for natives of certain countries with ongoing crises, ongoing war, instability, etc. And it doesn't provide a long-term path to citizenship, but rather an 18-month maximum. If it's granted, it protects immigrants regardless of if they enter the country illegally or legally.
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And as we discussed last week, the House has already passed their own budget resolution. So I want to talk about the differences between the two, but I also want to quickly remind you what a budget resolution is and talk about what we can expect from here. Keep in mind the budget process is a two-step process.
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Haitian immigrants specifically have been extended TPS status since 2010 through continuous government renewals. It started after a 7.0 magnitude earthquake that devastated the nation in 2010. It was later renewed by the Biden administration in 2021 following civil unrest after the assassination of the Haitian president, and it was renewed again most recently in 2024.
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Notably, according to a United Nations report, gangs currently control 85% of the Haitian capital, 5,600 were killed in gang violence last year, and sexual assault in Haiti increased against children by 1,000% last year.
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To give you some numbers as to how many Haitians are currently eligible for TPS protections and how many have been eligible in the past, following that 2010 earthquake, DHS estimated 57,000 Haitians eligible to register for TPS. When status was renewed in 2021, DHS estimated 155,000 Haitians eligible. And when status was renewed most recently in 2024, DHS estimated 520,000 Haitians eligible.
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So like I said, this most recent extension was granted in July 2024. It was supposed to last for 18 months until February 2026. But last week, DHS Secretary Christine Noem issued a memo directive that said in part, quote, to qualify for legal protected status.
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Biden and Mayorkas attempted to tie the hands of the Trump administration by extending Haiti's TPS by 18 months, far longer than necessary or justified. President Trump and Secretary Noem are returning TPS to its original status temporary. End quote. And again, just to be clear, U.S. law does allow TPS for a maximum of 18 months at a time.
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Biden's most recent extension was for that 18-month maximum. But per the new memo, TPS for Haitians will expire on August 3rd of this year, which will essentially limit TPS to 12 months rather than 18. And by the way, I previously reported at the beginning of this month that the Trump administration had vacated TPS status for Venezuelans. And that move is currently facing legal challenges.
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So it's likely this new memo will be challenged as well. For this next story, and this is one many of you wrote in about, there's a new bill that was introduced by Republican lawmakers that might undo a Biden administration rule that limits bank fees or bank overdraft fees at $5. So here's the deal. This past December, the former Consumer Financial Protection Bureau director,
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announced a new rule that would in some cases limit bank overdraft fees to $5 down from the current average of $27. At the time, the CFPB said the rule was meant to close a loophole that exempted overdraft loans, overdraft fees from lending laws.
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First, a budget resolution, which is what we're talking about here, a budget resolution is a non-binding blueprint. that essentially outlines the fiscal goals of Congress but does not have the force of law. To get to the second step in the process, which does have the force of law and is known as a reconciliation bill, an identical budget resolution must be adopted by both the House and Senate.
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In the rulemaking process, the CFPB found that some banks strategize to maximize overdraft fees by setting new rules without actually notifying customers and would manipulate the processing order of transactions to generate more fees for the banks. CFPB said the rule would save households that consistently pay overdraft fees about $225 a year.
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So basically under this rule, banks with more than $10 billion in assets had three choices. They could either cap overdraft fees at $5, adjust their fees to only cover their costs and losses, or disclose the terms of overdraft fees up front. And that rule was or is supposed to take effect in October.
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However, Republican lawmakers have since introduced a resolution that would block that rule from taking effect. They argue that if banks cannot charge a large enough fee, banks will instead just block people from making transactions at all if the account holder doesn't have enough funds.
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Consequently, those who overdraft often will simply be declined for making a transaction rather than being loaned the money to do so. Republicans and lobbyists say they're trying to protect consumer choice.
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In other words, if the rule goes into effect and leads to banks cutting off consumer transactions entirely when the consumer doesn't have sufficient funds, the consumer won't have the choice to spend or the ability to spend.
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So two Republican congressmen, Senator Tim Scott and Representative French Hill, have introduced a joint resolution called a Congressional Review Act, which if passed will block the CFPB rule from taking effect. Notably, Congressional Review Act resolutions are exempt from the filibuster rule in the Senate, meaning they only need a simple majority to pass.
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Because of that, it is looking like this resolution will pass if all Republicans are on board, and the rule would then be blocked from taking effect. Those that support the CFPB rule and oppose this new joint resolution argue that the resolution serves the interests of big banks and financial institutions rather than hardworking Americans.
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They cite to the fact that the Bank of New York Mellon, the 13th largest bank in the country, was Representative Hill's top funding contributor last year. Hill himself is a former CEO of a community bank in Arkansas.
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Goldman Sachs was Senator Scott's top funding contributor last year, and over the course of Scott's political career, he has received more than $5.3 million in campaign funds from financial services. The IRS began laying off 6,000 new agency employees last week, which is about 6% of the IRS workforce.
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Per an IRS email, under an executive order, the IRS has been directed to terminate probationary employees who were not deemed critical to filing season. Those impacted are said to include revenue agents, customer service workers, specialists who hear tax disputes, and IT workers.
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More than 3,500 of the 6,000 are from just one division, the IRS Small Business Self-Employed Division, which helps with debt resolution and ensures that roughly 57 million small business owners comply with tax obligations.
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Ahead of the layoffs, the IRS reportedly combed through an initial list of approximately 15,000 probationary employees to try to ensure that no one being laid off plays a direct role in filing season. However, those within the IRS still have concerns that the firings could cause delays this tax season.
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Now, the IRS has been hit the hardest when it comes to terminations, and it's no coincidence that during the Biden administration, the Inflation Reduction Act increased IRS funding over the next 10 years by $80 billion. And that has in part the intended and expected result of bringing on roughly 87,000 new IRS employees.
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Independent budget analysts estimate that the staff expansion would boost government revenue and narrow budget deficits, mainly due to increased tax enforcement against the wealthy. However, at the time of the Inflation Reduction Act's passage, and still today, Republican lawmakers were against it. So Trump's move to fire 6% of the IRS workforce isn't necessarily unexpected.
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The reconciliation bill is what will ultimately guide Congress in appropriating funds for each department of the government, but we're not there yet. We're still on step one, the budget resolution. And as of right now, the Senate and the House have two different resolutions, so they'll need to reconcile their differences in order to get to step two. But let's talk about what those differences are.
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And as we know, this move to fire IRS employees is part of a greater effort to reduce the overall federal workforce. The Trump administration supposedly has plans to merge the U.S. Postal Service with the Commerce Department. But to be clear, there's some conflicting reporting.
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So some reports are saying that the president is preparing to issue an executive order to disband the board that oversees the U.S. Postal Service and put the agency under the direct control of the Commerce Department. But then people within the White House have said that's not happening. So there's a bit of confusion here. However, let's go through what we know.
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When Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick was sworn in last week, President Trump was asked about his plans to merge USPS with the Commerce Department. And in response to that, he said, quote, Well, we want to have a post office that works well and doesn't lose massive amounts of money. And we're thinking about doing that. And it'll be a form of a merger, but it'll remain the Postal Service.
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And I think it'll operate a lot better than it has been over the years. End quote. Notably, Trump tried to privatize the Postal Service in his first term, which is something other countries have done and different than what he's proposing now. But that plan to privatize lacked support from Congress and labor unions at the time, and nothing happened with it.
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Now, Trump's whole reason for wanting to do something with the Postal Service, as he said during Lutnick's swearing-in, is to stop the losses. To give you some numbers, since the 1970 reorganization of the Post Office, USPS has been largely self-funded. The bulk of its $78.5 billion annual budget comes from customer fees.
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Congress provides about $50 million of that $78.5 billion to help subsidize free and reduced-cost mail services. but the rest is entirely self-funded. Due to the decline in first-class mail and the cost of retiree benefits, the Postal Service has accumulated $87 billion in losses between 2007 and 2020.
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now as far as the potential disbanding of the u.s postal board and merging the postal service with the commerce department it's unclear whether the president has the authority to do this without congress's help and the postal board is expected to challenge any attempt to disband it the thing is is that the postal board members are appointed by the president and confirmed by the senate
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Per the president's Article 2 removal power, he has broad discretion in removing anyone the president appoints. However, the situation may be different if he's planning on disbanding the entire board rather than just one or two members. The other thing is that the Postal Service is an independent agency.
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And as we talked about last week, independent agencies are a bit more insulated when it comes to the amount of power the president has. Because of this, it's unlikely Trump could merge USPS with the Commerce Department without proper authorization from Congress.
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Like I said, as of now, the president has not issued an executive order, so we're still unsure of whether the president is going to ultimately try to do anything with USPS. But stay tuned because I will keep you updated if an order does ultimately get signed. Let's take our first break of the episode here.
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When we come back, we'll talk about a UnitedHealthcare fraud investigation and much, much more. Welcome back. According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, the DOJ is investigating UnitedHealthcare for potential fraud, specifically how UnitedHealthcare records diagnoses that result in extra payments from the government.
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So the DOJ thinks UHC may have been inflating diagnoses to profit off of higher payments on Medicare Advantage plans. Basically, the federal government pays private insurers like UnitedHealthcare to provide insurance benefits beyond traditional Medicare coverage.
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As a refresher, the House resolution is much more expansive and expensive. It proposes $2 trillion in cuts to mandatory spending over the next 10 years, $4.5 trillion in tax cuts, and a $4 trillion increase to the national debt limit. None of those amounts are included in the Senate budget resolution.
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These payments will increase when patients are diagnosed with certain conditions or diseases or diagnosed with additional conditions and diseases, which then potentially incentivizes insurers to identify additional illnesses, right? The more illnesses or the more severe the illness, the more the insurance company can get paid.
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Now, Medicare is a federal health insurance program specifically for people 65 years or older or people younger than 65 that have certain disabilities. A Medicare Advantage plan, also called Part C, is what private insurers like UnitedHealthcare offer.
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medicare advantage plans are medicare approved plans you know approved by the federal government from private companies that offer an alternative to original medicare and it's paid for by the federal government in 2023 49 of medicare beneficiaries were enrolled in medicare advantage plans and that number has only increased since then so again a crucial component to the story is the fact that the federal government pays for these plans
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Reports are now saying that UnitedHealthcare has allegedly used software to suggest additional diagnoses to doctors offering bonuses for increased reporting of other conditions. Because, as we said, the more conditions, the more money they get paid from the government. Importantly, UnitedHealthcare has denied any wrongdoing. It has said that it continues to comply with federal regulations.
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And we'll talk about what that means. But just to illustrate, a federal judge in D.C. said recently that the administration could continue with mass firings because the plaintiffs lacked the legal right to bring the lawsuit. But in this case, which is out of San Francisco, the judge said the government had to temporarily stop the mass firings because they were likely unlawful.
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how to tie the agreement to a U.S. security guarantee, saying, quote, if we don't get security guarantees, we won't have a ceasefire, nothing will work, nothing, end quote. As for Trump, though, he said the United States would not be providing security guarantees beyond very much.
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While the published agreement says that the United States supports Ukraine's efforts to obtain security guarantees, Trump has said that the security responsibility is on Europe and claimed that the presence of US workers in Ukraine would provide automatic security. So going into this Friday meeting, there were already disagreements on the table, most notably over that security guarantee.
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But what sparked the argument in the Oval Office was a question from a reporter about Polans history under Russian control. The reporter said that as a child, he viewed the United States as the most powerful country known for its great entertainment culture and being a force for good. But he said that his friends worry that Trump aligns too closely with Putin.
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Und er will Trumps Botschaft für sie wissen. Trump antwortete dazu, dass er nicht mit Russland oder der Ukraine verabschiedet ist, sondern mit den Vereinigten Staaten und für das Gute der Welt. Er sagte, dass es wichtig ist, neutral zu bleiben als Mediator, um Verhandlungen zu machen, und dass es nicht hilft, Seiten zu wählen oder schlecht zu sprechen.
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Weißpräsident Vance dann chimed into the conversation and said that the key to peace is diplomacy. He said that the previous administrations talked tough on Putin, yet Putin still invaded Ukraine and destroyed a large part of the country. Vance said that the United States has wrongly prioritized words over actions.
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und hat Trump für das Engagement in der Quote-unquote echten Diplomatie gefeiert, die Vance glaubt, das ist das, was Amerika's Großartigkeit definiert und das ist das, was einen gewünschten Ergebnis erzielen wird.
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Also sagt Zelensky dann, und keine Sorge, ich habe mich für diesen Argument verabschiedet, den ich für dich in einem Sekunden spielen werde, aber das triggert Zelensky zu sagen, naja, lass mich dir das dann zu Vizepräsident Vance fragen, und das ist das, was den Argument begonnen hat.
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Zelensky essentially said that since 2014 Ukraine has faced ongoing conflict and since then the United States has seen a lot of presidents, Obama, Trump, Biden, now Trump again, but he said during 2014 no one stopped Putin's occupation of Ukraine and through 2022 no one stopped Putin, implying that no president has done anything to stop Putin. Putin.
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Consequently, he said, in 2019 he signed a ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement with Putin directly, which Putin broke in 2023 and never exchanged any prisoners in accordance with that prisoner exchange agreement. So Zelensky asks Vance at the end of these remarks, he asks Vance, what kind of diplomacy, JD, are you talking about? What do you mean? J.D.
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antwortete, die Art von Diplomatie, die die Zerstörung in deinem Land beenden wird. Und das ist, als Zelensky versucht, etwas zu sagen, aber J.D. hat ihn ausgeschlossen und die Argumente begonnen, sich zu erheben. Also, was ich tun werde, ist, dass ich einen 5-Minuten-Klip für dich spielen werde.
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Ich denke, anstatt den Gespräch zu beenden und zurückzubekommen, wer was gesagt hat, ist es am besten, dass du es für dich hörst. Wenn du es bereits gehört hast, fühl dich bereit, die nächsten 5 Minuten oder so zu verpassen. Aber hier ist es. Ich werde anfangen, Präsident Zelensky zu fragen, was Präsident Vance von Diplomatie bedeutet.
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So what happens now when we have these conflicting rulings? Well, the ruling out of San Francisco applies to the parties that brought that lawsuit and the ruling out of D.C. applies to the parties that brought that lawsuit in D.C.
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The San Francisco ruling applies to federal employees that belong to certain branches of the American Federation of Government Employees Union and to other unions, whereas the D.C. ruling applies to employees that belong to the National Treasury Employees Union and for other unions.
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So that was the argument. The meeting ended up getting cut short. No mineral deal was signed. At this point, we don't know when or if that deal will be signed. Following the meeting, President Trump posted to True Social, he wrote, We had a very meaningful meeting in the White House today. Much was learned that could never be understood without conversation under such fire and pressure.
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so each ruling applies to the parties that brought that particular lawsuit there's also a related storyline here which is that some employees that lost their jobs are taking a different approach to getting their job back rather than filing a lawsuit in the courts they're filing complaints with the merit systems protection board which is this independent federal agency
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It's amazing what comes out through emotion and I have determined that President Zelensky is not ready for peace if America is involved because he feels our involvement gives him a big advantage in negotiations. I don't want advantage, I want peace. He disrespected the United States of America and its cherished Oval Office. He can come back when he is ready for peace. Endquote.
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Almost immediately after that meeting, Zelensky goes to an interview with Brett Baer on Fox News. should be able to have honest and direct dialogue as strategic partners to be able to end the war. Baer again asks Zelensky if he would apologize. Zelensky says that he respects the president and he respects the American people and again said they need to be able to have open and honest conversation.
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He said he's not sure that they did anything bad, but that maybe some things need to be discussed without the media to respect democracy. Then yesterday at a summit of European leaders in London, Zelensky said he would return to the White House if he was invited, saying he is still, quote, ready to sign the minerals deal. So that's where we're at as of now.
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Again, we don't know when or if that minerals deal will end up getting signed as things currently stand, but it does seem as if both President Trump and President Zelensky are willing to resume talks. In other news, late Sunday night, MANA Nutrition had its contract with USAID restored after it was cancelled last week amid spending cuts.
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So I was actually going to include this as a quick hitter, but I figured we could tie it into a conversation about Doge, because I still get questions rolling in every day about Doge. Let's start with Mana Nutrition specifically, then we'll get into a related story about Doja's website, how you can use it to do your own research.
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But we'll also talk about some inaccuracies and errors that have been posted on the site and some things you need to be cautious of. So the CEO and founder of Mana Nutrition says that its company's contracts with USAID were reinstated late last night. after being cancelled last week.
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The development came after Elon Musk wrote on X earlier in the day on Sunday that he would investigate the cancelled contract and fix it. So, Jon Favreau, he's a liberal political commentator and President Obama's former speechwriter, He shared a post on X about the canceled USAID contract.
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The post he shared was a screenshot of a CNN article that talked about how there were 400,000 boxes of USAID-branded, ready-to-use therapeutic foods ready to be shipped out, but that if USAID didn't pay Mana Nutrition for those boxes, there would be at least $10 million in wasted peanut butter.
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In sharing that article, Favreau wrote as the caption, Kids will die because Elon Musk starved them of food we already paid for. So Musk then replies to Favreaus post and writes, Dollar store John Favreau is an imbecilic propagandist who lies to score cheap political points. That said, we will investigate whether this is real or not and fix it if it is.
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That night is when the CEO of Mana Nutrition got the notification that the contract termination had been rescinded. So, just to give you a little bit of context, these ready-to-use therapeutic foods are fortified with milk and vitamins and loaded with extra calories, and they're sent to malnourished children around the world.
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In this case, this particular contract was for a ready-to-use therapeutic peanut butter paste, but there are other kinds of ready-to-use therapeutic foods as well. Now, I want to segue into our conversation about Doge.
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In case you didn't know, Doge now has a website, doge.gov, and on it you can find updates on the work that Doge is doing, as well as other information like how much money Doge has saved the government, what the government spends its money on, some government workforce information, and some federal regulation information.
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dass er Begriffe gegen die Regierung hört. Und letzte Woche hat der MSPB einen 45-Tage-Pause auf Terminierungen geöffnet, aber auch gesagt, dass sechs der verabschiedeten föderalen Mitarbeiter am liebsten bis zum 10. April aufgehoben werden müssen. Und obwohl sechs Mitarbeiter offensichtlich ein sehr, sehr kleines Niveau sind, im Großen und Ganzen.
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In fact, if you're ever curious about what Doge is doing and which contracts have been cancelled, doge.gov is going to be the best place for you to look. But Heed my warning to take the information with a grain of salt, and I'm of course going to explain why. I wouldn't just say that without a basis, but this is just to give you a heads up.
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This isn't to say that everything Doge is posting is wrong and inaccurate. Like I just said, it's probably your best source of information if you're trying to find... You know, a bit more about what Doge is doing and what contracts have been cancelled and all of that. But there have also been mistakes. So for one, Elon Musk himself has come out and said, Doge is going to make mistakes.
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While speaking at the president's first cabinet meeting, Musk said, quote, Endquote. He gave an example of an earlier mistake with USAID. He said, for example, with USAID, one of the things we accidentally cancelled very, very briefly was Ebola prevention. I think we all want Ebola prevention, so we restored Ebola prevention and there was no interruption.
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But let's talk about a few others, specifically on the Doge website, just to kind of say, hey, be cautious about the information you see. On February 25th, Doge went ahead and deleted and or revised five of its biggest savings that had previously been listed on the website. So the biggest cut on the site was an $8 billion cut at ICE. But it turns out that number was supposed to be $8 million.
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Nicht 8 Billionen. Nach allem ist ICEs gesamtes Budget 8 Billionen Dollar. Trotz der Fehler hat Doge gesagt, dass es nur ein Typo war und dass es immer den richtigen 8-Millionen-Nummer verwendet hat, um Doge's totalen Ersatz zu kalkulieren. Der nächste war drei Kutzen, jeder wert 655 Millionen bei USAID, was ungefähr 2 Billionen Dollar erhöht hätte.
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Aber dieser Kutzen wurde nicht richtig doppelt gekürzt. Der Doge-Site hat jetzt nur eine Einladung und diese Einladung beträgt 18 Millionen. Der dritte große Ausgleich, der scheint ein Fehler zu sein, ist der, der 232 Millionen Dollar auf der Social Security Administration gelistet wurde.
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This number would have been correct if the Social Security Administration had cut its entire contract with the defense company in question. Instead, though, it only cut a small portion of their contract with the company, worth about $560,000, which was supposedly part of an initiative to let users mark their genders as X. Neuer Receipts since February 25th also contain some errors.
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Just to give you a few examples, the Department of Agriculture withdrew funding from a contract for DEI Training and Assessment Services, which saved $25 million, but receipts on Doge have mistakenly listed that contract four separate times. That obviously resulted in a $100 million savings calculation instead of $25 million.
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Mein Punkt hier ist nur, um die verschiedenen Methoden von Bekämpfungen und Bedingungen, wenn man will, in der Regierung zu illustrieren. In ruling that these six individuals had to be rehired, the U.S.
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The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau canceled a contract worth $9,999, but Doge Savings mistakenly listed it as multiple contracts. So all this to say, if you're interested in checking out what kind of savings Doge has achieved, you can always go to doge.gov, click on the savings tab. That's going to be your best source of information.
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But just note that all information there might not be totally 100% accurate and that Doge does issue updates and corrections. Okay, second and final break here and I will be right back. Welcome back. Let's talk about the measles and the most recent update from HHS Secretary Kennedy. A northwest region in Texas known as South Plains has been experiencing a measles outbreak.
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And by the way, just so we're all on the same page, the CDC defines outbreak as three or more related cases. But as of Friday, which is the latest update from the Texas Department of State Health Services, since the end of January, there have been 146 cases identified. 20 of those were hospitalized and one died.
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Most of the cases have been children under the age of 18, with 70 cases in children aged 5 to 17, 46 cases in children younger than 5. 79 Cases are in people who are unvaccinated, 5 cases were confirmed to have received the MMR vaccine and 62 are listed as unknown status. So, so far this year there have been 3 measles outbreaks across the country and a total of 164 cases nationwide.
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Obviously, 146 of the 164 cases are part of this one outbreak in Texas, which means the other two outbreaks are relatively small. New Mexico currently has an outbreak with nine reported cases. There have also been reported cases in Alaska, California, Georgia, Kentucky, New Jersey, New York City and Rhode Island. For context, in 2024, there were a total of 285 cases and 16 outbreaks.
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Special Counsel, who's also going through his own termination battle, found that while the probationary employees that were fired lack some job protections due to their probationary status, they can't be fired at will. According to the investigation into the termination of those six employees, none of the six employees that were fired
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Now, Measles was declared eliminated in 2000, which means that since then there have been no outbreaks that lasted for more than a year. And since then we've continued to see smaller outbreaks. The largest number of reported cases since then was in 2019. when we saw about 1,274 measles cases, which came from 31 different states.
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However, closely related outbreaks in New York accounted for 934 of those cases in 2019, or about 75%. Und 2019 war viel höher als die meisten Jahre, mit 2014 der zweitgrößten Anzahl seit 2000 bei 664 Fällen. Also war 2019 offensichtlich doppelt die Anzahl in 2014, was die größte Anzahl von Fällen ist, die wir seit 2000 gesehen haben.
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Now, HHS Secretary Kennedy released a statement today via an op-ed on Fox News. And it's getting some attention because of his stance towards vaccines. And I've seen some headlines that are kind of taking what he said out of context. And obviously, as we know, as I always say, it's always important to read past the headline.
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So just in case you don't have time to read past the headline, I want to read you the most relevant portion of his statement. That way you can at least have a general understanding of what he had to say, even if you don't have time to read the whole thing. So he starts by saying, quote, Vielen Dank. It is also our responsibility to provide up-to-date guidance on available therapeutic medications.
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While there is no approved antiviral for those who may be affected, CDC has recently updated their recommendation supporting administration of vitamin A under the supervision of a physician for those with mild, moderate and severe infection. Studies have found that vitamin A can dramatically reduce measles mortality.
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He continues and he writes, "...parents play a pivotal role in safeguarding their children's health. All parents should consult with their healthcare providers to understand their options to get the MMR vaccine. The decision to vaccinate is a personal one.
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Vaccines not only protect individual children from measles, but also contribute to community immunity, protecting those who are unable to get vaccinated due to medical reasons. Tens of thousands died with or of measles annually in the 19th century America." By 1960, before the vaccine's introduction, improvements in sanitation and nutrition had eliminated 90% of measles deaths.
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Good nutrition remains a best defense against most chronic and infectious illnesses. Vitamins A, C and D and foods rich in vitamins B12, C and E should be a part of the balanced diet. The measles outbreak in Texas is a call to action for all of us to reaffirm our commitment to public health. Vielen Dank. Endquote. So like I said, that was just part of his statement.
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So that's what's going on with the firings at this point in time. Some more Thursday news. Attorney General Pam Bondi in coordination with the FBI publicly released files related to Jeffrey Epstein. But the way that those files were released has sparked some controversy and that's what everyone seems to be talking about. So let's discuss what happened, but also some background.
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I do have the link for you to the full statement in the sources section. Otherwise, you can just Google Kennedy's measles statement, Fox News, Op-Ed, something along those lines. It'll pop right up for you. But that is what you need to know there. That's what you need to know about the measles outbreak. Let's continue right along.
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Per Reports, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered the US Cyber Command to suspend offensive cyber planning and operations against Russia. Notably, the order has not been made public, but internal sources familiar with the situation have shared information with multiple news outlets, which is what I am going to share with you.
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Hegseth apparently gave the order late last month, though it just now started making waves in the news. The order reportedly applies to the U.S. Cyber Command, which is a part of the Department of Defense. It's in charge of the U.S. cyberspace.
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The National Security Agency, or NSA, which is another agency within the Department of Defense, is not included in this order, which presumably means that cyber espionage against Russia conducted specifically by the NSA can continue. Now, here's where the reporting differs a bit, depending on which reports you read.
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According to the Washington Post, the order does not suspend planning for potential operations against Russian networks. It just suspends actual operations. Other outlets, however, have reported that the order tells the US Cyber Command to halt both planning and operations. So we don't have a ton of clarity there. As far as why this order was given, that we don't know either.
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It's speculated the order is part of an effort to get Putin to start talking about Ukraine, because officials who allegedly spoke with the Washington Post said that the suspension is only supposed to last as long as it takes to end the Russia-Ukraine war. So that's what we know. Now let's talk about some quick hitters.
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Last week, the Education Department sent out an email offering its employees a one-time $25,000 voluntary separation incentive payment or the equivalent of severance pay, whichever is less. Per the email, it is a one-time offer with a deadline of tonight at 11.59pm in advance of a, quote, very significant reduction in force for the Department of Education.
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And those who take the offer can stack it with retirement benefits. Most department employees are eligible, though there are a few exceptions, including for those that are using disability retirement, those that received a student loan repayment benefit in the last 36 months, or those that were awarded a retention bonus in the last 12 months.
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And in a federal lawsuit out of Seattle, a judge has granted a two-week pause on President Trump's executive order prohibiting federal funding for gender transition treatments for individuals under the age of 19.
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The plaintiffs, which include the states of Washington, Oregon, Minnesota, Colorado, and three individual doctors, argue that the executive order discriminates against transgender and gender-diverse people by criminalizing healthcare that is, quote, "...lawful, state-regulated, medically appropriate and necessary and specific to their health needs, while the same care is provided to cisgender people for other purposes."
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That's obviously an equal protection claim. The plaintiffs also argue that the executive order usurps Congress's spending power by making access to the funds conditional and violates the 10th Amendment, which reserves powers not given to the federal government to the states.
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So the actual oral arguments were heard in this case on the 27th of February, but the judge granted a two-week pause until she issues a final decision on the matter, which essentially means that for now the executive order is temporarily blocked and in the four states involved in the lawsuit.
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Once the judge does issue a final decision, it's likely that the losing parties will appeal to the appropriate appellate circuit. And the Trump administration has eliminated the General Services Administration's technology unit, known as the 18F Office. The team was comprised of researchers, web designers, and product managers, who helped federal agencies use technology to better serve the public.
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The official website for the 18F office was taken offline Saturday, the same day the termination emails were sent to employees. That email stated that the team had been deemed non-critical and that the cuts were being made in alignment with the president's workforce optimization executive order and a recent memo from the GSA requiring cutting non-essential consulting functions.
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As many of us know, Jeffrey Epstein exploited more than 250 underage girls in the early 2000s at multiple personal properties in New Jersey, Florida, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Manhattan and others.
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And now it's time for some critical thinking, a segment where I just encourage you to think a bit deeper about a particular story or issue and sort of challenge your own views and beliefs. Typically, the critical thinking segment will tie back to a story in the episode, but sometimes not. For today, let's revisit a story from last week's episode. If you didn't hear the episode, it's fine.
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I'm going to recap what we're talking about. But last week we talked about this new Department of Defense memo that says service members who have, quote, a current diagnosis or history of or exhibit symptoms consistent with gender dysphoria will be processed for separation from military service, end quote. As we discussed, that memo also laid out when an individual might qualify for a waiver.
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allowing them to remain in the service despite identifying with a gender different than their biological sex.
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The memo states that waivers will be issued on a case-by-case basis if a service member 1. demonstrates 36 consecutive months of stability in the service member's sex without clinically significant distress or impairment, 2. demonstrates that he or she has never attempted to transition to any sex other than their sex, And three is willing and able to adhere to all applicable standards.
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So as I said in last week's episode, it seems, according to the language of the memo, that a service member can stay in the military even if they identify with another sex so long as they have never attempted to transition, they haven't had any periods of instability in how they view their sex in the last three years, and so long as they are willing and able to adhere to applicable standards.
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But if a member does not meet those three requirements, they'll be removed from service. So in thinking about this, first check in with yourself, what are your initial thoughts? Maybe you're in favor of the policy because you feel it prioritizes military readiness. Maybe you're against the policy because you feel it unfairly discriminates.
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Welcome back to Unbiased, your favorite source of unbiased news and legal analysis. Welcome back to Unbiased Politics. Today is Monday, March 3rd. Let's talk about some news. Per usual on Mondays, we start with some news from Thursday and then we kind of just work our way forward. So let's talk about this court ruling pausing mass firings within the government.
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Either way, check in with yourself, what are your initial thoughts? you know, thoughts and feelings, what comes to mind. Once you've done that, I want you to apply the following hypotheticals depending on where you stand.
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Back in 2008, Epstein signed a controversial non-prosecution agreement with Florida law enforcement in which he would plead guilty to two state charges, one count of soliciting prostitution and one count of soliciting prostitution from a minor. He was sentenced to 18 months in the Palm Beach County Jail. He only served 13 of those.
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So if you are in favor of the policy, I want you to imagine a situation where a highly skilled and decorated service member who has never had any negative evaluations or any adverse administrative action is discharged due to this policy. Do you still feel that the policy is justified and or prioritizes military readiness as it is intended to do?
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Now, if you are against the policy, consider the argument that... Should people who require transgender care, whether it be puberty blockers, hormones, etc., ongoing treatment, be an exception to this rule? Or should they be held to the same medical standard that all other members of the service are held to?
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And finally, regardless of where you stand, whether you're in favor or against, I want you to challenge yourself to think of an alternative solution that serves as a compromise for both sides. I don't want to give you any hints or lead you one way or the other. I just want you to challenge yourself to get creative and see what you can come up with.
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Something other than what this memo sets forth that feels like it would be a middle ground for both sides of the debate. That is what I have for you today. Thank you so much for being here. As always, I hope you have a fantastic next couple of days and I will talk to you again on Thursday.
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And while serving, he was allowed to leave nearly every day for the full work day to work from his office in Palm Beach. But in exchange for this guilty plea, the federal sex crimes investigation that he was facing. came to an end. That non-prosecution agreement was brokered by a US attorney named Alex Acosta, and we'll touch on him more in a minute. So Epstein gets out of jail in 2009.
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For the next 10 years, multiple women who say they're victims of Epstein engage in various legal battles to get Epsteins federal non-prosecution agreement voided.
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In 2018, the Miami Herald revisits the handling of Epstein's case and this triggers Epstein to be arrested on federal sex trafficking charges in 2019 by New York authorities who determined that they were not bound by the earlier federal non-prosecution agreement. At the time of Epstein's arrest, though, Alex Acosta, the U.S.
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attorney that brokered that controversial non-prosecution agreement, was actually serving as Trump's labor secretary. This was during Trump's first administration. So Acosta ends up resigning as labor secretary because of the public criticism he received over his role in the initial investigation. One month after Epstein's arrest, he is found dead in his jail cell.
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Investigators conclude that he died by suicide, but there are many other theories surrounding his death, most notably that one of Epstein's high-profile associates, who did not want their name exposed, hired someone to kill him in his cell.
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All this to say that for years the public has been waiting to see Epstein's associates list, the list of people that also engaged in sex acts with minors at Epstein's various properties. Also im Jahr 2023, vier Jahre nach dem Tod von Epstein, hat ein New Yorker Gericht das Unkündigen von tausenden von Dokumenten bestätigt, die die Namen von tausenden von Epstein-Vereinigungen ausdrücken würden.
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Die Dokumente werden auf eine rollende Basis geliefert, aber am Ende haben wir nicht wirklich viel mehr gelernt, als wir bereits wussten. And most recently, on Thursday, the Attorney General released more files related to Jeffrey Epstein to a small group of conservative influencers. The influencers were seen leaving the White House with binders labeled the Epstein files phase one.
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Nachdem wir herausgefunden haben, was in diesen Bindern war, haben wir noch nicht viel gelernt. Die Dokumente in den Bindern enthaltenen Kopien von Flugzeugen von Epstein's Privat Plan, Kopien, die in den Vergangenen in Gerichtssituationen hergestellt wurden.
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Wir haben auch eine stark redakte Kopie eines schwarzen Buches erhalten, das wir auch vorher gesehen haben, und das enthält eine Liste von Epstein's Kontakten und dann auch eine komplett redakte Liste von Masseuses. What is new is an evidence list showing entries for more than 150 different items spanning from nude pictures to massage tables to sex toys and more.
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It's basically a three-page catalog of material obtained through searches of Epstein's properties in New York and the U.S. Virgin Islands. One piece of evidence is a CD labeled Girls Picks Nude Book 4. Numerous photo albums and pictures, a folder titled LSG Logbook, which refers to Little St. John, Epstein's Private Island. And then also, this was interesting, investigators found a bag.
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Obviously, we know the Trump administration has been issuing these mass layoffs within the government. Following those initial layoffs, multiple lawsuits were brought by those that lost their jobs as well as labor unions. die entweder waren oder vielleicht auf der Linie beeinflusst wurden.
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So that is what we got in Phase 1 of the release. According to Bondi, the DOJ received roughly 200 pages of documents from the FBI, but she also says that thousands of pages were not disclosed.
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She requested that the FBI deliver the remaining documents to the DOJ by end of day Friday, tasked the FBI director with investigating why not all missing documents were provided to her in her initial request. Allegedly, A whistleblower from the Southern District of New York contacted Bondi and told her that the Southern District of New York was hiding potentially thousands of Epstein files.
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So Bondi is now demanding all Epstein evidence from the Southern District of New York and ordering an investigation into the person who allegedly withheld these documents. None the less, the administration faced criticism after the rollout of Phase 1, with some calling it a publicity stunt. One Republican lawmaker called the release a complete disappointment.
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So we will see if more gets released in time. That is what the administration is saying, that this was just Phase 1, more phases will come. But that is what we have as of now.
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Moving on to some Friday news, President Trump signed an executive order making English the official language of the United States, marking the first time in American history that the country has designated an official language. As always, an executive order has a stated purpose and or policy, and then in this case, the order revokes a previously issued executive order consistent with that policy.
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Purpose and or policy. So we've talked about how executive orders almost always have a purpose and or policy and then directives for the federal government to carry out that purpose and or policy. But in some cases like this one, instead of a directive, the actual action is a revocation of a previously issued executive order.
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Also in diesem speziellen Fall hat eine Koalition von Arbeitnehmern und Non-Profit-Mitgliedern gegen die Administration gefeiert, die argumentiert hat, dass das Büro des Personalmanagements ihre legalen Autoritäten übernommen hat, als es vorgelegt hat, diese verschiedenen Agenzien zu feiern, tausende von probationären Arbeitnehmern in Mass.
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Because presidents can issue executive orders, they can also revoke other presidents' executive orders. So here obviously the purpose is to make English the official language of the United States.
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The order says that a nationally designated language is at the core of a unified and cohesive society and the United States is strengthened by a citizenry that can freely exchange ideas in one shared language.
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It says, "...establishing English as the official language will not only streamline communication, but also reinforce shared national values and create a more cohesive and efficient society."
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"...and then consistent with that purpose, the executive order revokes a previous executive order issued in 2000 by President Clinton called Improving Access to Services for Persons with Limited English Proficiency." However, the new order also confirms that one, no changes will be mandated to the services provided by government agencies.
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Two, agency heads have the authority to make decisions necessary to fulfill their missions and provide efficient government services. Three, agencies are not required to change, remove or discontinue documents, products or services in languages other than English.
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And four, that the Attorney General must rescind any policy guidance issued under that 2000 executive order and provide updated guidance that complies with the new order. A new lawsuit has been filed against the Trump administration attempting to prevent the transfer of more migrants to Guantanamo. As we talked about, I think maybe last month,
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There was a similar lawsuit that was filed, but that lawsuit argued that migrants couldn't be moved to Guantanamo because of their lack of access to attorneys and family while there. This new lawsuit argues that the actual act of sending the migrants to Guantanamo is unconstitutional and unlawful. And there are essentially three claims in this new lawsuit.
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Number one, the transfers to Guantanamo violate the Immigration and Nationality Act. Two, the transfer rules set forth by the administration violates the Administrative Procedure Act. And three, transferring the migrants violates the Fifth Amendment, which affords defendants due process.
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So for that first claim, the argument that transferring migrants to Cuba, which is where Guantanamo is, is essentially that... Cuba is not a proper removal destination under the Immigration and Nationality Act framework.
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The second claim, which alleges a violation of the Administrative Procedure Act, basically says that the administration has failed to put forth reasoned explanations for the decision to transfer migrants to Guantanamo, and in making its decision to do so, the administration considered factors that Congress did not intend to be considered."
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And then for the Fifth Amendment claim, the plaintiffs argued that immigration detention is subject to due process. So we'll have to see what happens there. The plaintiffs have requested an emergency stay, which would prevent the administration from sending these 10 migrants to Guantanamo while the litigation plays out.
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Speziell argumentieren sie, dass diese Aktion den Administrativen Procedure Act verurteilt hat und dass nur der Kongress die Macht hat, federales Arbeit und entsprechende Ausgaben zu kontrollieren. Nun, ich habe vorhin gesagt, dass mehrere Ausschüsse verabschiedet worden sind. Und der Grund, warum das wichtig ist, ist, weil... These rulings have been different in different jurisdictions.
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And by the way, to put that number into perspective, that 10 number, the Trump administration has sent a little more than 200 migrants to Guantanamo since Inauguration Day. Let's take our first break here to hear from the show's amazing sponsors and I will be right back to talk about President Trump's meeting with President Zelensky, some Doge updates and more. Welcome back.
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For this next story, we're going to talk about what went on between President Zelensky, President Trump and Vice President Vance in the Oval Office on Friday. I want to give you a quick disclaimer here because I typically do not talk about foreign affairs. That is an intentional decision. There are many reasons for that. The number one reason being that I am only one person.
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I don't want to feel like I have to cover what's going on across the globe. It is more than enough to talk about domestic issues. So I've just drawn a pretty bright line rule in not touching on any foreign affairs since the start of the year. However, this story is one that I feel is domestic enough, right? It took place in the Oval Office.
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UNBIASED Politics (3/3/25): Trump, Vance, and Zelenskyy Fight It Out, 'Phase 1' of Epstein File Release, Measles Outbreak and Kennedy's Response, Halt on Russian Cyber Operations, and More.
It directly involved the President and Vice President of the United States. So I am making an exception here to talk about a foreign issue. But I just wanted to make that disclaimer because by no means am I going to now start talking about various foreign affairs. I already have a full plate and that is just not what I need. So, let's start with the reason for the visit.
UNBIASED Politics
UNBIASED Politics (3/3/25): Trump, Vance, and Zelenskyy Fight It Out, 'Phase 1' of Epstein File Release, Measles Outbreak and Kennedy's Response, Halt on Russian Cyber Operations, and More.
President Zelensky met with President Trump on Friday to sign a bilateral agreement, which was finalized two days prior. And it would have given the United States access to rare mineral deposits in Ukraine through joint investment. In other words, Ukraine would contribute 50% of its proceeds from future state-owned mineral resources, oil and gas to a fund. That fund would then invest that money in
UNBIASED Politics
UNBIASED Politics (3/3/25): Trump, Vance, and Zelenskyy Fight It Out, 'Phase 1' of Epstein File Release, Measles Outbreak and Kennedy's Response, Halt on Russian Cyber Operations, and More.
Vielen Dank. So, this minerals deal was proposed last year by Zelensky in an effort to incentivize the United States to continue to support Ukraine in its war with Russia. As for the United States, the United States likely would not benefit from this deal for at least a decade, probably closer to two decades, and that's just because mining is a long-term process.
UNBIASED Politics
UNBIASED Politics (3/3/25): Trump, Vance, and Zelenskyy Fight It Out, 'Phase 1' of Epstein File Release, Measles Outbreak and Kennedy's Response, Halt on Russian Cyber Operations, and More.
First, you have to identify reserves, and then from there it takes about 18 years to develop a mine, plus about 500 Millionen bis zu einem Billion Dollar, um eine Mine zu bauen und den Unternehmensseparationsplan. Once all that is done, that is when the United States would start to see the mineral benefits.
UNBIASED Politics
UNBIASED Politics (3/3/25): Trump, Vance, and Zelenskyy Fight It Out, 'Phase 1' of Epstein File Release, Measles Outbreak and Kennedy's Response, Halt on Russian Cyber Operations, and More.
Now, President Trump had initially requested 500 billion dollars in mineral wealth under the terms of the deal. His rationale was that the United States has given Ukraine between 300 and 350 billion dollars in aid and that the United States needs to get that money back plus some. However, Ukraine rejected that request with one Ukraine economist saying the deal term would bankrupt the country.
UNBIASED Politics
UNBIASED Politics (3/3/25): Trump, Vance, and Zelenskyy Fight It Out, 'Phase 1' of Epstein File Release, Measles Outbreak and Kennedy's Response, Halt on Russian Cyber Operations, and More.
The United States has since dropped the demand. Notably, the deal did not include a security guarantee from the United States, which is something that Zelensky had pushed for and continues to push for. On whether he would walk away from the agreement without a security guarantee from the United States, Zelensky said he would not sign the deal until Trump decides to